Yellowknife mother fighting for supported living help

Yellowknife mother fighting for supported living help Emily Blake Wednesday September 23, 2026 at 5:57am MT Yellowknife seen from Pilots' Monument. Emily Blake/Cabin Radio Share Shawnette MacNeil is fighting for her son to get the help he needs in Yellowknife but says there are gaps in supported living services in the territory. “I’m frustrated and I’m angry,” she told Cabin Radio. “We made a commitment to these children and I’m going to see it through.” MacNeil and her husband have adopted three of the nearly 90 children they fostered over 14 years. Her 24-year-old son has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD, and is unable to work or live on his own. MacNeil said her son needs mental health treatment that is not currently available in the territory. While the NWT government has proposed sending him to live at a supported living facility in Edmonton, MacNeil and her son want him to stay at his family home in the North while getting the help he needs. Advertisement. Advertisement. “They want to send him away to a place where he has no support, no family, no love, no anything, and they are OK with spending all that money, but they’re not OK with keeping him here,” she said. “If something happens, I’m too far away to get there fast enough to help and it’s scary for me, too. I feel like I’m failing because I can’t get him what he needs where he lives.” Despite facing road blocks, MacNeil said she’s not giving up. She is working to have her home considered a supported living home and is advocating for more mental health supports in the NWT. More broadly, MacNeil wants the NWT government to better support people with disabilities to stay in the North and make it easier to access services. Advertisement. Advertisement. “I don’t want somebody else to go through this,” she said. ‘It breaks my heart’ Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart, who has been working to help MacNeil, said having her home designated as a supported living facility could unlock funding. He said a “sticking point” seems to be that such facilities are run by organizations rather than private homes. Testart pointed out the capacity of local service providers is limited. He argued providing resources to keep people with developmental disabilities at home with their families makes more sense, and is less expensive, than sending people south. He noted many people in care are Indigenous and should not be sent away from their culture, home and families. “Communities are our…