All I want for Christmas - Urban dwellers in squalor want to live in dignity as downtown redevelopment gathers pace

Like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, eviction notices have been ominously hanging over the heads of Marcia Johnson and her family for the last 10 years.

Like clockwork, the notice is served with an ultimatum for Johnson to leave the premises located at 7-11 West Street, downtown Kingston, by year end.

The eviction notice is an annual exercise that leaves Johnson depressed during the holiday season, as she fears that her children and grandchildren could end up on the sidewalk.

But Johnson and her family are not the only persons facing an uncertain future about where they will lay their heads at nights. At least 40 families, numbering more than 80 people who occupy the large two-storey building at 7-11 West Street, have also received eviction notices annually. They, too, nervously wait for the day when the owner takes action to eject them from the building.

Advantage General Insurance Company has confirmed that it owns the property. President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Thompson said that the company was acquired by Sagicor on September 30 this year.

“The management is currently focused on completing its transition efforts. We recognise downtown as a promising area ripe for development. However, no meaningful strategy has been developed for that property,” he said in an emailed response.

While the building provides shelter for Johnson and her family, the 55-year-old woman said that she was uncomfortable raising her grandchildren in an environment that was unsuitable for them.

“All the while me haffi cry. It nuh nice,” a sombre Johnson said.

On the question of utilities, Johnson said that the occupants “have a little water”, noting that electricity was not a permanent fixture. “When dem ready, dem come tear down dem light,” she said of the illegal throw-ups.

Rays of light provide a pathway into a section of the basement of the building where the bathroom facilities are located. However, the thickness of the darkness in the cellar makes it difficult to traverse the area, and the pungent smell emanating from the bathrooms stopped the Gleaner news team in their tracks.

“Nobody not going to feel good in a public yard that is not clean,” Johnson said, pointing out that it was a challenge to keep the bathroom in an acceptable condition.

“I want a house to move from right here so, or help, because the other day I was saying I would look piece a place to get one of the government house dem,” she said.

Johnson said that the last time Member of Parliament (MP) Desmond McKenzie visited the area was in January 2017 when the occupants of 7-11 West Street were left homeless after fire damaged their living quarters, leaving one elderly woman dead.

She invited McKenzie, who is also minister of local government and community development, to meet with the people in an effort to provide some guidance and support towards relocation.

MOST FIRES IN THE CORPORATE AREA

However, McKenzie said that relocation can only take place when a place was identified to put the people.

The Kingston West MP also pointed out that many houses have been destroyed by fire in his constituency, leaving hundreds homeless. “We have the average of having the most fires in the Corporate Area than any other constituency,” he said.

Johnson urged Prime Minister Andrew Holness to “come and talk to the people and see if you can do something for us”.

On November 30, Holness visited Rasta City in Tivoli Gardens to meet with residents who live in an apartment building that was constructed some 50 years ago but has deteriorated, exposing poor living conditions.

“Your conditions here are not something that the Government is proud of, and this constituency is not the only constituency that is suffering from the kind of deterioration in the housing stock and urban blight. But I believe that your situation requires attention,” Holness told the residents.

In a December 18 Gleaner article detailing the plight of Walter Duncan, who has slept on a ledge of the Kingston waterfront for six months after being evicted, urban planning expert Dr Carol Archer argued that gentrification – the reclamation of urban districts along middle-class lines – could marginalise many traditional downtowners.

A number of dilapidated buildings in downtown Kingston are being acquired by large financiers with a view to establishing businesses as part of the overall redevelopment plans signalled by the Government for the capital.

However, Archer, a professor in the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of Technology, said that stakeholders such as the Urban Development Corporation have not played a key role in giving the dispossessed a seat at the table as plans advance to redevelop Kingston.

Meanwhile, an enterprising Johnson, who is not looking for handouts, operates a little shop on the premises, and when the Gleaner team entered the ‘big yard’, the grandmother of four was seen hanging clothes on the line, a day’s work that she was juggling to make ends meet.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com