By Kenesha Fraser
A number of residents of Tapakuma, Essequibo Coast, are calling for justice following their eviction from their ‘Food For The Poor’ homes last Saturday by the village council.
According to information, in 2011, Food For The Poor built 50 houses in Tapakuma for families in need. The houses were handed over to the families with the condition that they occupy them immediately.
Simone Sandy, a resident to whom a house was given, told this publication that last Saturday she was travelling from the village to conduct business in the Anna Regina area, when Village Captain Doreen Jacobis stopped the bus she was in. “She tell me that she want me to go and check some matter so I asked what the problem
was and she said it was concerning the Food For The Poor house that was given to me,” Sandy said.
She said she told the Captain that she had business to attend to and would visit the office at a later time. But the captain insisted. “I went with her, two policemen and two other councillors,” she added.
At the Village Council office, Sandy recalled, Jacobis told the police that she had to be removed from the house since the house was not being occupied.
But Sandy denied this. “We does live in the house,” she insisted. “My husband don’t really be around but we live right in the house. Them take me to Theresa Ville where the house deh and they ask me for the key to the door. I didn’t have it and I tell Captain that my husband gone with it. She then tell the police to break the lock but they say they ain’t doing that. She tell me I must break it I tell she no, too. James Schadde [a village councillor] then say that he gon break it and he gone for the hammer and so and he break the lock.”
Sandy said she was told to pack up her belongings and move out of the house immediately but she resisted, telling them that she wanted to speak with her husband first. She said this was refused and she was forced out of her home.
Sandy said she had to sleep at her mother who lives in the same village for two nights since she had nowhere else to go.
Meanwhile, when Stabroek News contacted the Village Captain, she said Sandy did not want to give up the house although she has a “beautiful house” that she built.
“We contacted Simone Shew [Sandy’s maiden name] in November of last year and told her that if she did not occupy the house by December 31, 2013 the house will be taken back because they are others who are in need of housing,” Jacobis said. “The policy of Food For The Poor is that the house has to be occupied.”
Jacobis added that notice was given to Sandy and on Saturday, the village council intervened because the house was still not occupied. She also said that when the notice was given, Sandy and her family were hostile.
“When the houses were built, each family had to clear their own land. At the village council meeting, we agreed that if the family was removed from the house, we would compensate them a total sum of $20,000,” Jacobis said. “In the case of Simone Shew, she had already signed a receipt and collected the $20,000. I heard that she had handed over the house to her aunt Shirley and the aunt had paid her the $20,000. So in all Simone collected $40,000. Shirley had given me a receipt and later in the day she came to me and said that she would like to have the receipt back because Simone had given her the money back. I told her that the receipt could not be given back. When we went to the house on Saturday, there was only a mattress with a net and 3 market bags. There were no cooking utensils that indicated that anyone was living there.” Sandy further revealed that on Sunday, the broken lock was replaced. She said she was also told that the gutter was ripped off by the village council.
Up to yesterday, Sandy’s house remained empty.
Two other residents of Tapakuma complained of similar situations and said they wanted justice since they termed their evictions “unfair treatment’”.
