Homeless for New Year

YOUNG Central Trinidad farmer Khareem Neptune will tomorrow greet the New Year without a home to call his own after fire destroyed his two-room house in Chase Village, Chaguanas more than a month ago.

Neptune said that since the fire on November 17, he has been trying his best to rebuild but 2020 will meet him still homeless and having to stay at the home of a friend. What is worse, he added, is that the fire also destroyed seedlings which he purchased with the hope of planting.

Neptune, 23, said that a day after the fire he was supposed to be celebrating his brother’s 14th birthday, but instead, spent it speaking with police and fire officials. Neptune who plants on land owned by someone else, has six younger siblings.

He showed Newsday a video of his home being gutted by the fire with its electrical supply being hurriedly disconnected by a crew from T&TEC on the night of the blaze. The fire was recorded by a neighbour. Neptune’s wooden house was reduced to ashes in the space of 15 minutes.

He is claiming that the fire was an act of arson and that he made two reports to police of threats to his life, following the fire. Neptune said an “old boyfriend” of his then girlfriend was released from prison recently and was not too keen to hear of his (Neptune) relationship with the woman. This relationship, Neptune said, has since ended.

Neptune said he visited the offices of a television host who runs an anti-crime feature on local television and was featured in a segment of the show on November 22.

Moments before his house was set on fire, Neptune said he spoke to his former girlfriend, who his relatives had said was in the area looking for him.

“She asked me if I was at home. I said ‘yes’, but I questioned what she was doing looking for me as I broke off the relationship a few days before. I felt it was just too much drama. I even have her on tape acknowledging that there were threats to harm me and burn down my home. I just didn’t think it would really happen,” said Neptune.

Neptune said that he called the office of Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial and was directed by her staff to make an official report to Fire Services, seeking letters of assistance. Staff at the Fire Prevention Services Unit in Chaguanas assisted the homeless farmer with the letters needed to take to the relevant state agencies for possible assistance.

One of those letters, he said, was recently able to secure him a Debit Card (food card) from Social Services on Eleanor Street in Chaguanas and a quotation was given for the replacement of furniture lost in the fire. Neptune thanked a friend who has allowed him lodgings but said he cannot continue this way and needs a new home.

Neptune said he struggled through the Christmas Season to try and buy gifts for his siblings and mother, who lived elsewhere, so that they could at least enjoy the Yuletide season. Now that Christmas is over and the new year beckons, Neptune says he is turning his attention to rebuilding since he does not want to move out of the Chaguanas area, since this could compromise his farming job.

Neptune and his friend who is also a farmer, are tending to crops which are to be harvested within the next six weeks. “I grew up hard. All my life, things have been tough, but I always dreamed of having my own house. I love farming, it’s my passion and I am real good at it, but this has really thrown me off. How do I start over?”

Since the fire, Neptune has been getting by with the help of his mother, a few friends and member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Tacarigua. His New Year’s wish is for a new home. Anyone willing to help can contact Neptune at 268-0496 or 492-4426.