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Man forced into squatting after 24 years of trying to obtain house lot
By Tamia Lashley
Kaieteur News – Forty-three-year-old Keven Morrison of the Success Squatter Settlement, East Coast Demerara had been trying for 24 long years to legally obtain a house lot from the Ministry of Housing to no avail, to date.
Keven Morrison
Keven Morrison has since rebuilt a shack to house his family
After being continuously rejected, the man, who recently sat down with this newspaper to share his frustration, said that he was forced to turn to squatting to provide a home for his family. At the age of 19, Morrison, who is a Green Ice Taxi driver, said he first applied for a piece of land. But the man is alleging that this wasn’t the only occasion he applied. He said that he did so on a few other occasions. He said that his attempts to follow-up on the status of each application were met with less than courteous responses from Ministry of Housing officials.
However, it was after becoming a father and coming to the realisation that he was not going to receive a response from the Ministry anytime soon, he was forced into squatting. But the man believes that he is now back at square one. This, he explained, is owing to the fact that persons purporting to be Ministry of Housing officials recently demolished his home, along with the homes of other nearby squatters, in a bid to dismantle the squatters’ settlement at Success.
Keven Morrison’s home that was destroyed
The mere shack that Morrison called home accommodated him, his three children – ages one, three and nine – and their mother, 25-year-old Davieka Persaud. Rendered homeless by the demolition exercise, Morrison said that in order to safeguard his family he was forced to literally “pick up the pieces” and reassemble them as he continues to hope for the miracle of a legitimate house lot. Especially worried about the state of affairs is Persaud, who confessed to this publication that she fears her eldest child could be ostracised or even bullied at school if students get wind of their unfortunate living condition.
Old unoccupied houses that were not destroyed
Rebuild
Both she and Morrison said that no consolation was provided to their family, not even from the Ministry of Housing officials, who they claimed, ‘simply destroyed the place and went on with their day.’ Though representatives of the Ministry did visit them and the other squatters after the demolition exercise, it wasn’t to provide any form of help such as plans to relocate them. Instead, according to Morrison and Persaud, they visited only to count the number of houses and squatters still around. When this publication reached out to the Ministry for a comment, a Public Relations Official stated that the Ministry had consulted the squatters beforehand and had even marked old houses to be destroyed. The official was adamant that no occupied house was slated for destruction, claiming that it had only been old, unused houses that were identified. But the squatters are disputing this explanation and even shared their frustrations on last Tuesday’s broadcast of HGPTV Nightly News. Added to this, Persaud also shared with this publication several photographs of old and unoccupied houses that were left untouched while several occupied ones were destroyed.
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