Christmas hope for Zeia

ZEIA FLEMMING may have a stroke of luck in time for her and her young son to spend Christmas in a house they can call home.

Her struggles for a house began in January, when her landlord threatened to evict her.

But Flemming was beaming with happiness when she got off a Public Transport Service Corporation’s bus at midday on Tuesday after visiting the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) offices in Port of Spain.

She told Newsday HDC staff gave her good news after their meeting and from then on, she has been keeping her fingers crossed.

Smiling, she said, “God is love. This Christmas could see us waking up in a brand-new home. The HDC people told me all my documents now in order. They say I on the road to an apartment and expect a call next week."

Flemming was walking up High Street from King’s Wharf, holding a bag of documents – among them a receipt from the HDC – in one hand, and her 11-year-old son’s arm in the other.

The mother of three is a squatter on land at Coconut Boulevard, Pleasantville. Spotted by Newsday a few years ago asking for alms on Harris Promenade, Flemming sometimes took the children and seated them on the curb in front of the old railway station.

When the landlord served her with an eviction notice in January, Flemming told her story to Newsday, fearing she would end up on the streets.

Days after it was published, San Fernando East MP Randall Mitchell telephoned Flemming. She reminded him that she had applied six years ago for a house, but was told to wait her turn.

In May, hope appeared to be on the horizon for Flemming, through the intervention of Mitchell, then Minister of Housing. She had three meetings with HDC staff and on each occasion, she took the documents they requested. At the same time, she had to grapple with three notices served on her to vacate the shack, the last one in May.

When Newsday caught up with Flemming on High Street, she breathed a sigh of relief, but with a smile.

"Well, I now from up there (HDC)," she said. "They told me that all my documents approved and nothing needed again. The girl said to expect a call soon. Yes, she said it could be a few days or a week from now."

Flemming, whose two other children left the shack to live with relatives for want of a place to call home, is wishing for a miracle this Christmas. If her dream comes true, she intends to bring them back to spend Christmas in a home they always dreamed about.

But if it’s not to happen this Christmas, then she and her son, a standard four pupil of a primary school, she said, will make do in the shack and hope for the best in 2019.