Foundation blocks to keep out HDC squatters

The families still “living” there include 19 adults and 16 children ranging in ages from nine months to 16 years. Still unable to find accommodation, one parent confessed to Newsday that at nights they and their children sneak into the empty apartments to sleep and at the break of dawn return to the side of the buildings where their belongings have been stored since their eviction last month.

“They block off the staircase, the windows, the doors, all the entrances to the apartments with foundation blocks,” the concerned mother told Newsday yesterday.

“With the blocks they are making sure no one can go in. Right now we don’t know what will happen to us after tomorrow (today) but we are still here because we have nowhere to go. We will just have to sleep at the side of the buildings.” Work to block the entrances to the apartments began about one week after the illegal occupants were kicked out of the apartments by HDC officials.

It was on March 20, HDC officials evicted 25 families who refurbished the apartments which HDC had deemed structurally unsound and unsafe to inhabit. They however ignored all the warnings and moved in with their families. During the eviction, workers removed all their personal belongings along with all household appliances and placed them at the side of the buildings.

Up to yesterday most of the items were still there. The eviction of the families brought mixed responses from the public. The tenants later apologised for illegally occupying the apartments.

Yesterday one parent said she was embarrassed over the conditions under which she and others now live.

The distraught mother said they have lost clothing, household appliances and other items which have been spoilt as a result of the exposure to the elements “Just yesterday (Sunday) I went to the back of the building to bathe when I heard someone laughing. When I looked over the river (on the other side) a little boy about eight years old was peeping and laughing at me. I chased him but he continue peeping at me and wouldn’t go. It was like a big joke.” She said she quickly cut short her bath and left. She said some of the families have erected makeshift bathrooms at the side of the buildings. Several of the children were unable to attend the first day of school yesterday because of the situation.

She also told Newsday that some parents can no longer go to work.

Newsday was told that the affected apartments at Buildings One, Two, Four and Five have already been blocked up. The families fear that they may next be ordered to get off the compound once work is completed. .