TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Imagine having to choose between your child’s health and having a place to sleep at night; that’s the choice facing one Toledo Mother.

“I am going right back to being homeless because I can not stay here,” Laura Snavely said.

Snavely has experienced homelessness multiple times throughout her life, as a result of domestic violence and addiction.

“In the past, I have been completely homeless,” she said. “I am trying so hard not to return to that type of lifestyle.”

Snavely decided to break the cycle of homelessness when she found out she was pregnant. She entered rehab, where she gave birth her son, Avario.

From there, she went into a local women’s shelter, before getting involved with a housing program through Leading Families Home, a local nonprofit.

“They want to get you rehoused,” Snavely said. “That’s what I was trying to do, and it’s just been a nightmare since.”

Snavely got an apartment through the program and moved in. She didn’t realize anything was wrong until months later.

“I took my son for a routine checkup for his 12-month appointment,” Snavely said. “That is when I got a letter from the Ohio Department of Health about his lead levels.”

Further testing found 3.8 micrograms per deciliter of lead in Avario’s blood. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that puts Snavely’s son in the top 2.5% of children with the highest blood lead levels.

”It was like, kind of a, a punch in the gut, you know? I’m supposed to be protecting my son and keeping him safe and healthy, and I feel like ever since I’ve been in this apartment his health -- I have been failing to do so,” she said.

Snavely says she tested her apartment for lead, and it came back positive.

“I can’t stay. Obviously, I can’t stay,” she said. “I feel like they backed me into a corner and tey know I don’t have any options.”

Others who escape homelessness have similar experiences.

“Richard and I lost everything during covid. Everything. We were living out of our van with our little dog,” Bonnie Russell said.

After being unhoused for more than a year, the Russell’s moved in to a mobile home at the end of 2023. But things didn’t get better.

“There’s feces under my trailer because the sewer was never connected,” Russell said. “We don’t have any plumbing, and we’ve been told to pee and pour it in the yard. We’ve been told to go potty in sacks.”

Russell reached out to I-TEAM Reporter Sophie Bates for help, and Bates was able to get management to fix her sewage system.

“Thank you, Sophie. Thank you,” Russell said.

But many aren’t so lucky, and their options are limited.

The City of Toledo is short nearly 13,000 affordable housing units, according to a 2022 housing report from the city.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development defines affordable housing as homes that cost no more than 30% of a households total income. If a household spends more than that, they are considered cost burdened.

In Toledo, nearly one-third of households fall into that category.

Snavely and could soon be part of the statistic, as she searches for a new place to stay.

“I am a single mom. I am all by myself. He is all that I have; I am all that he has,” she said. “Knowing that he depends on me and I feel like I’m failing him is where I’m struggling at.”

Since her interview with 13 Action News, Snavely has moved out of her apartment and is now staying with friends and family while she searches for a new home.

In part five of “Unhoused: The Struggle to Survive,” Bates is taking the issue of safe, affordable housing to Lucas County and City of Toledo leaders to see what they’re doing to help people who are unhoused.

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