RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A fam­i­ly in Union Hall, San Fer­nan­do, is call­ing for ur­gent as­sis­tance from Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee, as they con­tin­ue to live in a de­te­ri­o­rat­ing apart­ment plagued by wa­ter in the base­ment, cracked tiles, leak­ing walls, and a per­sis­tent mos­qui­to in­fes­ta­tion.

Mer­cia Gon­za­les-McIn­tosh, who lives at 73B Union Boule­vard, Cy­press Ridge, said she and her fam­i­ly have been liv­ing in dis­tress since re­ceiv­ing the keys to their apart­ment in 2018.

“From the time we got the house, there was wa­ter un­der the build­ing,” she said. “We re­port­ed it to the HDC of­fice in San Fer­nan­do. In­stead of fix­ing the prob­lem, they asked why we had our wa­ter heater and pump un­der there, even though all the fit­tings were in­stalled un­der the build­ing from the be­gin­ning.”

Gon­za­les-McIn­tosh ex­plained that the wa­ter ac­cu­mu­la­tion be­neath the build­ing has per­sist­ed de­spite at­tempts to mod­i­fy the gut­ter­ing sys­tem.

“Every time it rains, the wa­ter is still there. Mos­qui­toes breed un­der there. I’ve re­port­ed it many times. I’ve writ­ten let­ters to the HDC, but there’s been no re­sponse,” she said.

She said the on­go­ing damp con­di­tions have led to sig­nif­i­cant struc­tur­al is­sues in the apart­ment.

“A lot of the tiles are lift­ing. The build­ing is crack­ing. Last week, I in­jured my foot,” she said. “The walls in the toi­let have wa­ter run­ning down them. We have to use cloths to stop the leaks.”

She de­scribed the psy­cho­log­i­cal toll the sit­u­a­tion has tak­en on her.

“It’s de­press­ing. I suf­fer from de­pres­sion. Some­times I come home, sit down, and do noth­ing. I don’t know where to turn.”

Al­though she pays a month­ly mort­gage of $4,500, Gon­za­les-McIn­tosh said she and oth­er res­i­dents re­ceived lit­tle sup­port or in­for­ma­tion when they took pos­ses­sion of their homes.

“We were just giv­en the sub­lease. No one guid­ed us. We’re pay­ing $7,000 in le­gal fees, and we didn’t even know we need­ed a lawyer to ex­plain what we were sign­ing,” she said.

She claimed the apart­ment was hand­ed over in poor con­di­tion.

“We’ve spent over $100,000 fix­ing it. We put in bur­glar proof­ing, a new door, sink, cup­boards, and tiled the stairs. The HDC told us to take the unit ‘as is’ and promised re­pairs. If we had wait­ed on them, we’d nev­er be liv­ing here.”

Gon­za­les-McIn­tosh said her chil­dren are al­so suf­fer­ing be­cause of the con­di­tions.

“They’re not hap­py. They’re in a room with cracked walls and bro­ken tiles. There’s noth­ing we can do to make the home more com­fort­able. If you try to re­place some­thing, it breaks again. The build­ing is mov­ing.”

She is now ap­peal­ing di­rect­ly to Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee.

“I want the min­is­ter to come to Cy­press Ridge and do an as­sess­ment of every­body here. It’s not just me. A lot of peo­ple are go­ing through this.”

She al­so be­lieves the con­trac­tors re­spon­si­ble for con­struct­ing the build­ings should be held ac­count­able.

“The work wasn’t done prop­er­ly. Did any­one even in­spect these hous­es be­fore giv­ing them to fam­i­lies? The struc­ture is fail­ing.”

Asked if she would agree to be re­lo­cat­ed, Gon­za­les-McIn­tosh said she would—but with one con­di­tion.

“On­ly if the new place is struc­tural­ly sound. I don’t want to leave one prob­lem and go in­to an­oth­er.”

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee, who said he would con­tact the HDC’s Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer for a re­port on the mat­ter.