Fri | Apr 17, 2026

Begging for a home

Elderly woman desperately pleads for a place to live for her family

Published:Wednesday | February 23, 2022 | 4:54 AM
Pause
61-year-old Sandra Williams is seeking help to obtain a house for herself and four family members as she was thrown out of her home shortly after her husband died. Williams is now staying in a one-bedroom with her family at Train Line, off White Church Str
Nicholas Nunes/Photographer
61-year-old Sandra Williams is seeking help to obtain a house for herself and four family members as she was thrown out of her home shortly after her husband died. Williams is now staying in a one-bedroom with her family at Train Line, off White Church Street in St Catherine, but has received notice to move.
Williams said her biggest fear is living on the street with her two youngest grandchildren and whenever she is not at work, she spends her time crying inside the one bedroom and bathroom she shares with seven other persons, which include her son, his girlf
Nicholas Nunes/Photographer
Williams said her biggest fear is living on the street with her two youngest grandchildren and whenever she is not at work, she spends her time crying inside the one bedroom and bathroom she shares with seven other persons, which include her son, his girlfriend, their two children, two other granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.
1
2

Sixty-one-year-old Sandra Williams is one of hundreds of needy Jamaicans who are in dire need of housing but who, unfortunately, are unable to benefit from Food For The Poor Jamaica’s housing programme, because they have no documents to prove that they have legal access to a property, which is a necessary requirement of the charity.

Williams shared with The Gleaner that she made every effort to go to the charity organisation’s offices in St Catherine to plead her case and was interviewed years ago, but when the time came and she had to present proof of land or a title for the house to be constructed, her hopes were shattered because she owned none on record and never paid taxes for a property she once occupied, which her now deceased grandmother owned along St John’s Road in St Catherine.

“Which part mi did live bout 15 years ago, mi grandmother dead and her husband people dem tek it over and mek house pan it now. Mi granny did married to the man, and di man dead, so dem [his relatives] tek it over now so a long time mi a batta batta,” she shared with The Gleaner.

“A shame fi tell you weh dem do mi, inu. Dem come a night-time and shake dung di house and do all kind of manner of all evil fi mi come out. Shake it dung, wash car and all run water ina di yard. Whole heap a sitn dem do mi fi get di house.”

With the fear of losing her life and that of her children, Williams said she gave in to their demands and left behind the board structure she and her children’s father built.

‘KOTCH’ WITH SISTER

She went to “kotch” in her sister’s house with her three children back then.

Soon after going there, however, she and her children were thrown out and they ended up living on the streets.

Over the years, Williams said she had been doing jobs as a live-in helper so that she could have a place to stay.

Four years ago, she said a lady offered them a small back room of a now roofless house which is located along the train line off White Church Street in Spanish Town, St Catherine, but that owner is now renovating the property, and they have been asked to leave.

“She [the lady] seh she ready fi it, so I have to go,” Williams told The Gleaner with tears in her eyes on Tuesday.

Williams said her biggest fear is living on the street with her two youngest grandchildren and whenever she is not at work, she spends her time crying inside the one bedroom and bathroom she shares with seven other persons, which include her son, his girlfriend, their two children, two other granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.

She is now earning weekly minimum wage as a helper in Portmore, and she is “begging” someone to either lease her an affordable piece of land or to give her a piece of land.

Additionally, she is pleading for some assistance from the public for material to build a house for herself, if she gets the land space.

CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE

“Mi have two grandpikni and mi nuh want dem live outa door. Mi nuh waa lef dem outa door. Mi soon reach 65 [years] and can’t do nothing more,” she told The Gleaner.

Williams said as of late, she has been contemplating life’s exit option of committing suicide.

“Mi naav no help. Mi can’t get no help and di little food can’t mek nothing. Di condition rough man, rough!” she said.

Her daughter-in-law, Shaseba Dewar, has been a tower of strength for her and encourages her to remain hopeful that a breakthrough will happen soon.

“She’s been doing live-in work fi years, so it’s not like she never did a try do anything fi help herself. A dem tek it [her house] from her. She naago have no weh fi live,” Dewar told The Gleaner.

“Mi really wuda want she get the help a lot. A long time she a do live-in work, and mi wuda want the help tuh.”

Dewar said Williams has brothers who live on land their father bought, but the men have no documents for the land and they were not paying taxes, so that property could not have been used for the Food For The Poor housing application either.

Persons who are willing to assist Williams and her family can call her at 876-781-6016.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com