‘Only God with us here’

ON May 25 at 11.38 pm, Marilyn Reid, 64, was asleep in her rental apartment when she heard a loud noise. Her daughter went to check out what happened. “When she look she say ‘mammy the kitchen fall down.’”

When Newsday visited the two-bedroom apartment at Minachy Alley, East Dry River, Port of Spain, the back of the kitchen was completely missing.

The apartment has since been condemned and Reid, who has lived there for 22 years, is hoping to move out before “the place falls down on me.”

The elderly woman was in bed at time of Newsday’s visit and had to use her walker and be assisted by her eldest daughter Germaine to move to the living room.

She explained that on November 17, 2018 a car ran over her foot and due to that incident she has been a recipient of the disability grant.

Her daughter said when rain falls the roof leaks in her mother’s bedroom and they have to put a pail to catch it. Reid is originally from Clement Alley, St Barb’s and did domestic work before her injury.

She has six children (all girls), 19 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She lives in the apartment with three other adults and four children (one boy aged five and three girls aged six, nine and 11).

The apartment used to have a mice problem but they disappeared after the back of the kitchen fell down. The family believes the buildings were built atop river sand and this has caused the instability.

During the visit Reid’s daughter Germaine showed Newsday the damage to the kitchen, various cracks in the building and braces a relative installed to hold up the structure.

“A next earthquake and here gone. Is only God with we here now.”

She said with the house open people could just run into the apartment.

She also said that because of the structural instability the children in the house were scared to just sit on a chair or walk too heavily.

Reid reported that she contacted the landlord after the kitchen fell down. “I tell him about the kitchen he tell me ‘yes he coming, he coming.’ He do a little thing outside there.”

TO BE DEMOLISHED

She showed Newsday a letter dated May 27, 2020 to the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services and signed by Port of Spain Mayor Joel Martinez requesting assistance to access a rental grant for Reid.

“The building inspector of the Port of Spain Corporation has indicated that Ms Reid’s present accommodation is unstable and should be demolished. The council understands that Ms Reid is a recipient of the disability assistance grant and is need of further aid.”

The contact listed on the letter is councillor for Belmont South Aba Kamau but when contacted by Newsday she declined to speak on the record.

Reid said she had not yet received word yet from the welfare officer on the rental grant request.

She has been paying $500 per month on the apartment and claimed the last time she received a receipt was August 2017. She said she signed a rental agreement with the previous landlord but none with the current one. “He used to take the money but eh coming to do nothing.”

She reported that she last paid in February but stopped in March reportedly on the instruction of the building inspector not to pay any further rent. She explained that there are three other apartments on the compound and all are owned by the same landlord.

Newsday also visited Reid’s neighbour Janet Clarke, 78, who has lived in her apartment for eight years and has been paying $600 a month. She showed cracks in her walls and said at times it feels like the apartment is moving. She added that she is worried that her apartment would collapse on her at any time. “I sleep with one eye open and one eye shut.”

‘SHE OWES ME MONEY’

Newsday spoke to the landlord, Lancelot Alexis, in a telephone interview and he claimed that Reid was owing about $15,000 and he had not received money for three years. He said that the rent was $650 and Reid had been underpaying him at $500.

He claimed that the apartment was overcrowded with as much as 15 people at one point. He further alleged that Reid and her family even used “gangster people” to intimidate him whenever he visited. Asked if he had made any report to the police about the alleged intimidation, Alexis said he had not.

“I want to buy material to fix the place. I cannot do anything with these people in my place. Is not now the place falling down. Is over three years now.” Alexis said he planned to take Reid and her family to court to have them evicted. Newsday tried to call him back about the reported letter from the building inspector all calls went to voicemail.

On the intimidation allegation, Reid said she has never done anything to Alexis. She reported that another renter pulled a piece of iron to beat him and there were other tenants who were not paying him any money.

On the $15,000 claim, Reid said she could not confirm the figure but did recall for the first 13 years there was no electricity and this affected her payment of rent. “I wanted to get light so my grandchildren could do their homework.”

She said she received a letter from the previous landlord granting her permission to apply for electricity and went to TTEC on May 10, 2010. She saved her money from “doing a little end” in Maraval and one of the previous residents had her cousin wire the apartment. She explained that because she had to pay to wire the apartment there was a period she did not pay rent regularly but “off and on”.

On the claim she was underpaying rent she said the rent was originally $450 and Alexis raised it to $500, but he never asked for $650. On the claim that there were 15 people in the apartment Reid said this was untrue. “Who is the 15 people?”

Reid said that the situation with her apartment has been very stressful to her. “I can’t cry no more. I cry enough.”

The family said they had applied for a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartment years ago and Reid reported that she received a call from HDC last month and had an interview on June 27. She said the HDC official told her that they needed to visit her home to do an assessment.