Zeia finally gets her keys

Zeia Flemming outstide her new HDC apartment at Turure Building VI, Olera Heights, San Fernando, on Thursday. PHOTO BY MARVIN HAMILTON
Zeia Flemming outstide her new HDC apartment at Turure Building VI, Olera Heights, San Fernando, on Thursday. PHOTO BY MARVIN HAMILTON

AFTER nine years of knocking on the doors of the Housing Development Authority (HDC), Zeia Flemming on Thursday opened the door to a new home at Olera Heights, San Fernando.

From her verandah, she and her ten-year-old son gazed at the panoramic view of the Gulf of Paria. From her bedroom at the back, the rocky San Fernando Hills tower above the five-storey HDC building, blocking the view of the Coconuts, Pleasantville, where her broken shack still stands as a reminder of her struggles to find a home.

Flemming, 55, thanked Newsday for highlighting her plight, saying, "I feel good now. Life is a struggle, but I don't mind climbing these steps to reach up on the fourth floor. Me and my son still getting used to living in a big building, and so high up."

Flemming said she had been thinking how much happier she would have been if her three other children could have enjoyed the new home with her.

The mother of four separated from her husband 15 years ago.

She began to beg on Harris Promenade, often taking the children with her. Her other children are now 20, 24 and 25.

When the landlord threatened Flemming with eviction from where she and her youngest child lived in the Coconuts, she applied to the HDC. That was nine years ago and her uphill battle for a house saw her visiting HDC offices, she said, "more than a hundred times."

In January, the landlord made good on a threat and broke down part of the shack. Flemming and her son fled and the rain drenched their personal belongings.

A neighbour with a parlour offered them a room.

Meanwhile, she travelled back and forth, until after a couple of months, "HDC comforted my soul." The authority phoned to offer her a Christmas hamper, and then, in March, broke the good news that she had been allocated an apartment. However, the HDC was not yet ready to hand over the keys.

When Newsday visited Flemming yesterday, she and her son were standing in an empty living room and kitchen. She had no stove, refrigerator, chairs or bed. The mattress in the bedroom is on the floor.

"Well, we does see how best we could get something to eat. I not asking, but if I could get some help, I will consider myself most blessed," Flemming said.

Anyone wishing to help can call Flemming at 388-4742.

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"Zeia finally gets her keys"

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