If sleeping on chairs at the hospital is not bad enough, homeless Mary Paria is one of thousands who has been denied her monthly disability grant because of the pending sick out by postal workers.
Paria, who depends solely on this grant to live, said she does not know how she will manage over this long weekend without funds to purchase meals.
Yesterday, Paria made an impassioned plea to Housing Minister Randall Mitchell, telling him, “I depend on this money to buy tea, breakfast and dinner and I did not get it today.
“If I had a house I could cook a little something. Mr Minister, I am begging and pleading with you. You say that you would help me to get somewhere to live. I am asking please, can I get it because if you stand up in the rain and rain wetting you, you would not feel good.”
Paria suggested to Mitchell that if he could not find her a home or at least give her permission to squat on a piece of land and help her to build a roof over her head.
“Since I met the minister in his office on July 15, I have never seen or heard from him again. I got worried and went down to the HDC to find out what is going on because I need somewhere to live.
“I did not get a response; more than one person told me to hold some strain, I will get it. But it is years I out there and I would like something to happen a little speedily.”
Paria, 58, said she is growing impatient as she is still sleeping at the San Fernando General Hospital which has become even more uncomfortable.
“I am being tortured by the security guards. I was told they have instructions to run me when they see me. I need to come out of here to somewhere to call my own. I am asking him (Mitchell), please, in Jesus name, if they could assist me with a house as fast as they could.”
At the meeting which took place at the MP’s San Fernando East constituency office Mitchell introduced her to a social worker as well as to the social and community services department of the Housing Development Corporation to assess and determine her circumstances and also to determine what went wrong with units previously allocated to her.
Both also apologised to each other, him for “steupsing” at her request for a home and she for interrupting his interview with her request shortly after former Prime Minister Patrick Manning had died.