This story is part of Ideastream Public Media’s “Sound of Us” series covering housing and advocacy in Canton, produced in partnership with Canton for All People.
It's hard to miss Tania Fowler's house in Canton's Greater Shorb neighborhood.
Guests arriving this fall will be greeted by an enormous purple blow-up spider on the front porch.
“One girl said, ‘I love driving by your house on the holidays. You just decorate it so nice.’ I’m like, ‘yeah, it’s coming!’” Fowler said, laughing.
Inside, there’s even more ghastly garnishes — an array of skulls, skeletons and candles in the kitchen and even a spooky animatronic doll that walks around the house.
“Oh, we love Halloween. Love it,” Fowler said. “Heck, some of these [decorations] actually stay out all year.”
Fowler decorated her house with the help of four grandchildren who live with her, who share her love of all things creepy.
She’s had custody of them for the past five years, after Fowler’s son and their mom struggled with drug addiction. Fowler’s son is sober now, she said, and helps with the kids frequently. The oldest in the home is 17 and the youngest is 6.
Raising and homeschooling kids wasn’t the life Fowler expected she’d have in her sixties – but she wouldn’t change it.
“They’re mine, that's my blood. And I would do it for anybody, because no child deserves to be out there without a family,” Fowler said. “If I had to, I'd do it all over again.”
Finding a new home after tragedy strikes
It hasn’t been easy – especially in the past year. On the night of July 12, 2024, Fowler had gone on a quick run to the store. While she was out, the house caught fire.
A fifth grandchild, 11-year-old Harmony, was trapped inside.
“She was stuck in the bathroom,” Fowler said. “My grandson was there and he tried to go get her, but he couldn't. It was just too hot.”
Harmony was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital but never regained consciousness. Fowler made the decision to remove her from life support a little more than a week later.
“She was funny. Her pictures are all over in that corner,” Fowler said. “But, yeah, she was a good kid.”
Canton investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire.
In Fowler's living room, there's a display case full of pictures, clothes and memories of Harmony. Akron Children’s sent them Build-a-Bear stuffed animals that contain a recording inside of her heartbeat.
Fowler and her grandchildren listen to the recordings all the time, she said.
While mourning the abrupt loss of her granddaughter last July, Fowler was also immediately facing uncertainty about a place to stay.
There aren’t many safe housing options around her, she said. Many of the places within her budget are old, poorly maintained and owned by absentee landlords.
“I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know what I was going to do,” Fowler said.
That is, until she got a call from Pastor Don Ackerman, director of Canton For All People, a nonprofit that helps Canton’s impoverished neighborhoods by improving the housing stock. Between its founding in 2021 and 2024, the nonprofit has renovated 13 homes and built 5 new ones in and around Fowler’s neighborhood.
“The housing conditions for many residents downtown were unsafe, unaffordable, and oftentimes unlivable,” according to the nonprofit’s website. “These conditions have led to higher crime rates, high unemployment, and have kept families in a cycle of poverty that is difficult to overcome.”
The nonprofit covered cremation expenses and held Harmony’s services at Ackerman’s church.
Fowler didn’t know Ackerman previously.
“And after the services, he said, 'Your keys will be ready in two days,'” Fowler said. “That's how I got the house.”
New place is a 'night and day difference'
The organization had just finished renovating the home on Fulton Road around the time of Harmony’s death, Ackerman said.
They were initially planning to sell it, but offered it to Fowler to rent instead, he said.
“Her family is the perfect case scenario to show you how a family thrives when they're in a better place,” Ackerman said. “She literally lives only nine blocks from where she was, but it’s night and day the difference that made.”
He’s watched the Fowler family get back on their feet from afar, he added.
“They're not different people. The only thing that's changed around them are the conditions,” Ackerman said.
While grieving Harmony doesn’t get any easier, having a safer, better home has helped relieve some of the burden, Fowler added.
“It is because of Pastor Don and Canton for All People that we are where we are and coming up, you know, better than we had,” Fowler said. “I praise them every day, because if it wasn't for them, I can't tell you where I'd be.”
Ackerman told her the house is hers if she wants to buy it someday. She said she’s thinking about it.
