SASCHA WIL­SON

For the first time in ten months, Al­li­son Dick and her five chil­dren have a warm, safe and com­fort­able place to call home.

The fam­i­ly, who used to sleep un­der a cold con­crete stair­case at the con­demned Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) apart­ment build­ings at Har­mo­ny Hall, Gas­par­il­lo, moved in­to a three-bed­room apart­ment in Cedar Hill, Princes Town on Tues­day night.

Al­though the apart­ment is bare with just two old mat­tress­es, a gas tank, stove with on­ly one work­ing burn­er and a few wares, Dick is hap­py and re­lieved.

Three weeks ago, af­ter the T&T Guardian high­light­ed the fam­i­ly’s poor liv­ing con­di­tions, Dick was con­tact­ed by both the HDC and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­istry.

The min­istry agreed to pay her rent for six months once she lo­cat­ed an apart­ment. How­ev­er, Dick was hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty in lo­cat­ing a land­lord to ac­cept that rental agree­ment be­cause of Gov­ern­ment bad pay­ment his­to­ry. She is still await­ing a re­sponse from HDC on whether her son could qual­i­fy for a unit.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, an up­beat sound­ing Dick said, “When I think about all our fur­ni­ture,

ap­pli­ances, clothes and every­thing that get de­stroyed be­cause it get wet up I feel a bit de­pressed, but I am glad we get a place. I am hap­py for my chil­dren.”

Dick’s el­dest child, age 20, and her grand­daugh­ter, age four, al­so lived with her un­der the steps.

How­ev­er, her daugh­ter gave birth to a ba­by boy on Box­ing Day and has moved to

San Juan with her daugh­ter.

Dick’s sons, sev­en-year-old twins, nine, 16 and 18, still live with her.

Due to her health com­pli­ca­tions Dick was forced to quit her job five years ago. The fam­i­ly sur­vives on pub­lic as­sis­tance , a food card and fi­nan­cial help from her old­est son, who al­so works as a se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer.

Dick trou­bles be­gan in Ju­ly 2006 when her Moru­ga home was de­stroyed by a fire which claimed the life of her three-year-old son At­i­ba.

Her re­la­tion­ship with At­i­ba’s fa­ther, who al­so fa­thered her four el­dest chil­dren, end­ed. She be­gan rent­ing, but when her twins were one month old their fa­ther left her.

In 2010, HDC as­signed her an apart­ment at the Har­mo­ny Hall de­vel­op­ment, but the unit had in­fra­struc­tur­al de­fects.

She even­tu­al­ly moved her fam­i­ly in­to an un­oc­cu­pied apart­ment af­ter HDC failed to grant her re­quest for an­oth­er unit.

She al­so stopped pay­ing rent be­cause she was no longer work­ing. In March, she was among 25 fam­i­lies, thrown out by HDC for il­le­gal­ly oc­cu­py­ing the apart­ments. Any­one will­ing to as­sist her can call 359-7332.