“I am a sick old woman, living off my pension. I been living here for close to twenty years,” 61-year-old Eileen Jupiter said sadly glancing back at the remains of her now demolished home.
The two-storey ramshackle building, located at Hadfield Street and Sendall Place, was demolished yesterday by the authorities shortly before noon leaving a reported 15 families homeless.
When Stabroek News arrived at the scene residents were sitting along the roadside among their possessions. A small group was sitting on the property of the demolished building under a tree.
Eyes were red and puffed from crying and others reflected anger while uncertainty could be seen in the eyes of the children. A number of the now homeless residents made themselves comfortable eating and drinking at the roadside.
According to residents, on Saturday they were informed that their building would be demolished yesterday. This verbal notice, residents said, came after another old building on Hadfield Street collapsed.
The building which collapsed on Saturday left 11 families homeless, including 25 children. The collapsed building was located just in front of the now demolished building, in the same yard.
“These government ministers only making idle promises,” one man angrily said. “They just keep making promises.” The man explained that he was in the interior working when he received the message, via radio, that the building where he lived with his mother would be demolished.
“I left my work and rush out here on the first truck to look after everything. They promised us they would put us in the (shelter) but now we hear it full,” the man went on to explain struggling to stifle his anger.
“They ain’t let us remove nothing. All we clothes in there,” one woman shouted. But she was reprimanded by another. “Don’t lie,” the other woman said. “Tell dem de truth.” The other woman, striving to keep calm, explained to this newspaper that after they were informed the building would be demolished they were provided with meals from Saturday to Wednesday and were given until yesterday morning to remove their possessions from the building.
She further said that Minister of Human Services, Priya Manickchand, has been “helping very much”.
According to the woman, she has been stopping by to see them daily since Saturday.
Residents told this newspaper that they were referred to the Ministry of Housing by Manickchand. According to them, they were promised house lots. One man pointed out that Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, had promised on Saturday that trucks would be provided to move their possessions. “This was just another of their empty promises,” the man said. Many of the residents have no place to go while others say that their relatives will not be able to accommodate them for long. Jupiter said that she lived in the house with her daughter and seven grandchildren.
With nowhere to go most of the residents said that they would be spending the night under the stars with whatever little they have.
