Home in ruins leaves St Michael man facing Christmas in squalor

Terry Austin is facing Christmas in a collapsing wooden house with no electricity, no running water and nowhere dry to sleep.

Now, he is praying for a Christmas miracle, hoping that someone somewhere will help him rebuild the home he has spent more than two decades trying to hold together.

The 58-year-old St Michael resident said he has “appealed to so much different people” without success and fears he will not survive another rainy season in the dilapidated structure.

Austin has been living in squalor, battling the rain, rot and the elements inside a wooden structure so dilapidated that only a small portion of it can still be entered safely. He said he is now at his wits’ end.

When Barbados TODAY visited his Pounder’s Gap home on Wednesday while the island was under flood watch, Austin painted a painful picture of daily life with no indoor plumbing, no electricity, no secure place to sleep and no protection from the weather. The two-bedroom wooden house has no proper flooring, the roof is severely caved in and water drenches the interior each time it rains. Austin described nights spent in a corner struggling to stay dry.

“It’s harder than you can imagine,” he said as he showed the team the structure. “Especially last night, I can’t sleep anywhere and the rain falling. As you can see how the house looks, the whole entire place gets wet when the rain falling. This is where I sleep. I put the mattress here to try to not let it get wet too much. But sometimes I have to sleep in a corner or put on a raincoat if I really need to sleep. It’s terrible, really, really bad. So, [on] a day like today, I won’t be home. I go anywhere else – by a friend.”

He explained that the deterioration began after a major storm. “I think it was hurricane Tomas, I am not too sure, but one [of] the hurricanes that had real strong winds. The house started to deteriorate before that, and then from there it started deteriorating more gradually through the years.”

He said he sought help from successive governments but has never received a proper response. “From both administrations, both DLP and BLP administrations, I never get any proper response up to now.”

Austin is a painter and landscaper, but cannot earn enough to fix the house. He lives alone. He has four children but said they too are struggling. “They got little slight financial problems too because the bank was telling my oldest daughter that she don’t have enough money yet that she can get a loan to do that,” he explained, adding that he did not know how much money it would take to rebuild the house.

With no secure space to cook, Austin relies heavily on his daughters for meals. “When I work I buy food or I would get food from my daughters as well.”

The middle-aged man said the deterioration has taken a serious toll on his emotional well-being. “The sleeping thing is the real major problem. If I could get a square box it would be better than this. Anything, it don’t matter, nothing can be worse than this. It really, really bad.”

“I would appeal to anybody [for help] but I appealed to so much different people. I don’t know who to appeal to right now anymore. Anything, anything could work for me. Anything that I can sleep comfortable.”

MP for St Michael West, Chris Gibbs, who recently assumed the position of housing minister, said he and his team were fully aware of the situation and had already made contact with Austin. He said: “[The] Urban Development Commission is currently working with him to deliver a housing solution.”

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb