Woman, children homeless

Anne (not her real name) has spent much of her adult life; she’s now 40 years old, working hard to provide a proper home for her 16-year-old son and ten-year-old daughter.

Originally from Barataria, Anne said when her father died in 2010, she and her children were “kicked out of the house” by her half-siblings.

Searching for somewhere to build a permanent home for her family, Anne ended up buying a small lot of land in Enterprise that same year.

“The land came with a small structure. It only had one bedroom and apart from wanting to give my kids their own space, I have a form of autism and need darkness to sleep while my daughter prefers a night light and my son likes music.

“So I worked hard, saved my money, and two years and five months after we moved in, I completed the addition,” Anne said with a smile.

It was a rare moment of happiness during her interview with Newsday yesterday.

At times, Anne cried; there was no other outlet for her frustration, as she asked why a law-abiding citizen like herself was now homeless while gangsters had taken over her home.

“Our house is in the middle of territory controlled by the Unruly Isis and Rasta City gangs.

Two years ago, the police tore down our fence while chasing down some men.

Since then, these fellas criss-crossing our yard and sneaking along the drain to get at each other. It wasn’t as bad before that; the fence mostly kept them out but now...,” Anne paused and wiped away her tears.

Anne estimated that the deadly conflict between both gangs “started about three years ago.” “The police know we not in anything,” she told Newsday.

“So every time they came around, they would tell us to sleep on the ground in the kitchen because that room was in the middle of the house, so it was the safest place if shots fired.” “I want to know my rights!” Anne declared. “I want to know how, after I worked hard to provide a home for my children, that they have to be using street lights to do their home work and we homeless while people who doing wrong have a home still in Enterprise?!” This led Anne to share that while she’s a proud woman; one who’s “not looking for charity”, she chose to speak with Newsday because she’s fed up of the lack of answers from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) as to when her August 2015 application for emergency housing would be granted.

“I went by the HDC today (yesterday) and the woman who spoke to me said, ‘We still waiting on feedback from upstairs.’ Why can’t they give me a proper update? When will the people ‘upstairs’ have some information on my application? This brought me to Newsday.

This and my daughter asking me the other night, ‘When we getting back a home? What’s the point to life if we have to live like this?’ That broke my heart,” Anne shared, as she wiped away more tears.

Newsday attempted to speak with the HDC but the relevant official was in meetings all day yesterday.

We also reached out to an official at the Housing Ministry, who said Anne’s information had been forwarded to the ministry’s Client Relations Officer.

The ministry official told Newsday this person would call Anne immediately to arrange a meeting with her to determine the status of her request for emergency housing.

Her daughter’s question about their future comes after two weeks spent camping out on beaches, following an unceremonious eviction from their landlord in Caparo.

Anne explained that this past March, she moved out of Enterprise and into a place in Caparo, because her children had developed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Something which the psychologist she saved up to send them to told her would not improve until and unless they were taken out of the situation causing said stress; gang warfare in their Enterprise neighbourhood.

However, their landlord kicked them out two weeks ago after learning about their situation in Enterprise.

Anne said he told her he didn’t want any connection to gangs whatsoever, thus her eviction.