Squatters rained out at cricket pavilion

FOR the past ten days Union Hall squatters have made a pavilion on a nearby cricket field their home, but yesterday they were forced to seek cover in bushes and under trees when heavy rains flooded them out. It was a pitiful sight yesterday at the pavilion overlooking demolished shacks at Union Hall, Duncan Village near San Fernando, as Sunday lunch was being prepared while mopping up took place. The squatters were evicted from State lands on April 22 by the National Housing Authority. Many of them have since sought shelter at the nearby pavilion and have made the semi-covered stands and changing room, their home.

Thirty men have been sleeping in the pavilion on cots provided by the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment. The men have stored whatever they could salvage in the changing room where Newsday yesterday witnessed women, cooking and washing and children sleeping. But their sleep was disturbed in the wee hours of yesterday morning when the heavy rain came. The men sought cover below the pavilion, but the rain poured through wooden planks of the stands and flooded the room. When Newsday visited the scene women were mopping up the water. Others were cooking with the assistance of the men, a Sunday lunch of dhalpourie roti, curried potato and chicken. Hazel Ann Simon said: “I have come from the village to help these people. How long they will live here, is frightening. I have donated a freezer and I come and cook breakfast every morning.”

The squatters use water from a bathroom in the pavilion, to cook food and wash. All 40 persons are using the pavilion’s single toilet. Yesterday, army personnel delivered hot meals to the squatters. The squatters told Newsday that they have not worked a day since the demolition. Rita Small said: “I work ten-days. I cannot go to work. I have no clothes.” Patricia Joseph said she is a security guard and had just winks of sleep. “As a guard I have to keep my eyes open. I have not gone to work since,” she said. Most of the squatters’ children have been sent to the homes of relatives.

The squatters have since filed a judicial review lawsuit in the High Court, challenging the eviction. The case, called last week Thursday, was postponed to a date to be fixed. Attorney for the squatters, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC expressed sadness yesterday. He said: “The Government has a duty to the homeless and landless under the Security of Land Tenure Act, to provide land and homes for such people. It is a criminal act to break a squatter’s house under the Statute of Forcible Entry. I call on Mr Manning (Prime Minister Patrick Manning), to keep his promise and stop the demolition of people’s homes.”