Denise Callaghan had been working for more than a decade as a waitress and then dining room supervisor at the historic Anchor Inn when the people that had owned it for a quarter century began talking about selling the business.

The Inn, located in Little Current, Ontario,  is one of the oldest buildings on Manitoulin Island, and is celebrated by locals for its food, nightlife and history.

Denise, afraid that she and her fellow employees would lose their jobs, began thinking about buying the business from Bruce and Kelly O’Hare and their partner/building handyman Rob Norris. “I took a full year to think about it and right after Labour Day last year I started to work on if it was going to be doable for me.”

So that was how, on July 1, 2017, just in time for the start of the summer tourism season, Callaghan and her husband Chris became the new owners of the hotel, which was built in 1890.“Everyone gets to keep their job and the business runs as normal,” she said.

Now she is looking after some of the most vulnerable people in Little Current, Ontario, as well.

All its rooms are occupied by longer-term tenants who had nowhere else to go due to the housing shortage in the area.

It began with William Lanktree, 73, who was born and raised on Manitoulin Island. He was shocked when he began looking for a new home in 2022, as he was battling a new bout of cancer. “Unless you got $1,500 or $2,000 to pay for rent, where are you going to live?” he asks. 

Then he went to the Anchor Inn and asked Denise if she had any rooms for rent. The inn’s dozen rooms are usually booked by tourists who flock to the area to enjoy the natural beauty of the world’s largest freshwater Island.

But, given Lanktree’s situation, Denise agreed to set a room aside for him for up to a year at an affordable price.

Then she realized how many other people in Little Current were struggling to find housing — especially those struggling with mental, physical or addiction issues. And soon all the rooms were booked for at least a year, for between $700 and $900 a month.

The rooms have refrigerators and microwave ovens but no stoves, so the guests have to buy pre-made meals, microwave dinners or cook a bowl of soup at a friend’s house. The inn does have a restaurant, but most of the tenants are on a tight budget, so it isn’t really an option for them. 

“This is the best place on Earth,” says Lanktree. “I see the lake every day, and I got my Lazy Boy chair with me.” 

If it hadn’t been for Denise, he’d probably be living in a tent on the street, he says.

CBC’s recent story on the Anchor Inn, and some of its residents, seems to have touched a chord. It has been widely published in many small town newspapers in Canada and the US.

Sources:

Small-town hotel becomes a safe haven in an expensive world CBC, Bennington Banner, Feb. 11, 2024

New captains at the helm of Little Current’s iconic Anchor Inn Sudbury.com, Jul. 6, 2017

To shelter victims of the housing crisis, this Manitoulin Island innkeeper has taken in long-term tenants CBC, Oct. 9, 2023