SASCHA WIL­SON

For the first time in months, moth­er of six Al­li­son Dick feels hope­ful that she and her fam­i­ly will soon find a place to call home.

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment has ex­tend­ed its rental pro­gramme to Dick which means that the Gov­ern­ment will pay rent up to $3,500 for three months once the land­lord is in agree­ment.

“I can­not ex­plain how re­lieved and hap­py I am feel­ing. We have not found a place yet, but hope­ful­ly, we will find some­where soon,” said Dick in a tele­phone in­ter­view.

Dick, who is not work­ing due to health com­pli­ca­tions, has been liv­ing un­der a stair­case with her six chil­dren rang­ing from ages 20 to sev­en-years-old, and her four-year-old grand-daugh­ter, at an aban­doned Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion apart­ment build­ing at Har­mo­ny Hall, Gas­par­il­lo. Her el­dest child is preg­nant with her sec­ond ba­by.

Dick was among 25 fam­i­lies who oc­cu­pied the con­demned apart­ments il­le­gal­ly and were re­moved by HDC in March.

With nowhere else to go, Dick re­mained un­der a tent on the com­pound with her fam­i­ly be­fore seek­ing shel­ter un­der the stair­case.

Af­ter her sto­ry was high­light­ed on the front page of last Sat­ur­day’s Guardian, the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion and the min­istry reached out to her. HDC man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Brent Lyons vis­it­ed Dick on Sat­ur­day and told her that the or­gan­i­sa­tion would as­sess her el­dest son to see if he qual­i­fies for low-in­come hous­ing as­sis­tance.

Hous­ing Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell said then that Dick had oc­cu­pied an HDC apart­ment since 2010 but made no fur­ther pay­ments af­ter her ini­tial de­posit.

Dick and her el­dest son, Akeem, 18, a se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer, vis­it­ed HDC’s head of­fice on Mon­day for an in­ter­view to de­ter­mine whether he could qual­i­fy for a unit.

“HDC said they will try their best to help us,” said Dick. She then vis­it­ed So­cial De­vel­op­ment in Port-of-Spain and on Tues­day she met with of­fi­cials at the San Fer­nan­do of­fice.

Dick, who al­ready has a food card and re­ceives pub­lic as­sis­tance, said the min­istry was al­so help­ing her pur­chase up to $6,000 in fur­ni­ture. She did not qual­i­fy for a dis­abil­i­ty grant.

“I am trust­ing in the Lord that every­thing works out,” said Dick.