Homeless couple pleads for help

Mandeville, Manchester :

For approximately one year and eight months, Devon ‘Biggs’ Francis says that the only dwelling place he and his wife Fay have had is a spot under trees just off the Caledonia Road in Mandeville.

Retrofitted with cardboard boxes for beds, a sheet of ply wood to stand against natural elements, an old refrigerator for storing items, and a trolley for a carriage, the space occupied by the couple is testament to the hardship the two say they have been facing over the years.

“I have been in the parish for 25 years. When I came here from Kingston, I started working on a construction site. When that work stopped, I was a caretaker at a church, where I also got married and got baptised. I used to live on the premises, and me and them fall out. They employed me as a caretaker and then they told me they are collecting accommodation. They were, basically, asking me to pay them to watch their place,” he told Family and Religion.

The 54-year-old said he later invested in some cows and was rearing them on land belonging to his family, but he was soon removed from the property and later lost all he had worked for.

“Police come remove me from the land, and them tell me say me haffi leave and take all the things I have off the land. Me never plan fi sell me cow dem, but I had to. Me, basically, give them away. I sell a cow to a man for about $45,000, and the man pay me about 20 times. One day him will give me $5,000 then a next time $8,000, and that is how I get the money for all my cows – in pieces. The money mash up. Me nuh see the money,” Francis lamented.

Now at rock bottom, with nowhere to call home, Francis says that life has been extremely difficult, and buying and selling is the only source of income he has.

“I sell cigarette, lighters, sweets, and nuts on the streets and at dance, but since the COVID-19, no dance nah keep. Everything dwindling down. Tight now me only have two packs of cigarette. Sometimes I go out on the road and I make $800 or $1,000, and between me and my wife, we buy a pack a LASCO and biscuit in the morning and we have that in the evening again,” he noted.

With anguish written all over his face as his wife sat next to him dazed and distressed, Francis said it seemed that every time he tries to get out of the slum, he meets upon a force that sets him lower than he was.

“I was up by a tree one day a sleep and people steal me goods. That night, I was out on the front, and DJ Niney Badness see me a cry and him ask me what happen to me, and I told him. He planned a cook-out to raise money to help me, but it never worked out. Him end up give me back a start with some goods.”

FRANCIS’ POOR HEALTH

Francis, who battles hypertension, diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases, said things took a turn again when he was recently hospitalised.

“Me have to big up Mr Tufton because the people at the hospital treat me so good. When I was told I would be discharged, me actually cry. The nurse and the doctor them treat me so good. My pressure was so high, and me diabetic, it lick me dung. I get some medication free, but the others I have to get at a private pharmacy, but there is no money for me to get them,” Francis said.

With good Samaritans, including a police officer, providing the couple with meals and clothes, Francis said he is eternally grateful but is still feeling the pinch as water has now become a luxury they can hardly afford.

“I don’t have anywhere to get water like that. I don’t have water to bathe and wash clothes. Every day I have to buy six of the 11-ounce water bottles. The Chinese man sell one for $30 and use it to wash my armpits so me nuh stink. It nuh pretty. The condition nuh pretty. It’s not a joke. We are living in a squalor and people can come see for themselves. When it rains, sometime we use the ply board, cotch it on the tree, but if it rain hard, wid breeze, we soak/ Everything wet up, all we documents.”

He added: “Me nuh want people see me and think a money me a look. Me just a beg some help. Anyone who can help me, help me please. If me can get a piece of land, maybe Food For The Poor can give me a little one room. Me sick, but me would do a caretaker job, cut lawns, and me wife could do, like, domestic work, wash clothes. She is 66, and maybe some may think she is too old, but anyhow we can get the help, we will take it.”

To assist Devon Francis, call (876) 700-3900.

familyandreligion@gleanerjm.com