Roland Charlemagne is desperately seeking help for his 84-year-old father, whose long-time home has deteriorated into near ruin.
For more than 50 years, his father, Patrick Poleon of Morris Gap, Westbury Road, St Michael, lived in a wooden home that now looks as if it was battered by a storm – the front leaned hazardously and the centre and back sections were completely collapsed into pieces of board and galvanize sheets.
Poleon, a St Lucian by birth, has been living in Barbados for over 60 years. A mason by profession, he was employed for 29 years at Preconco Limited until his retirement last year, after which he continued to offer his services.
Charlemagne said he looked at every option possible, even contacting the Urban Development Commission which then pointed him to Minister of Housing, Lands, and Maintenance Chris Gibbs but those efforts were in vain.
“I spoke to the parliamentary representative and I managed to get a meeting with his office and then it was cancelled for whatever reason. I was told that I would get an update as to when another meeting could be put together. Since then, this has been going on for two months now and I haven’t heard anything,” he said in a defeated tone.
He explained that the house only started to deteriorate about six years ago and he was unaware that
his father’s living conditions had gotten worse over time.
“I personally wasn’t aware of the extent of the damage because my dad was always a guy who prided himself on being a hard worker and efforts to contact him were unsuccessful because he was always at work. It’s only since he became a pensioner and no longer works that I really became aware of the full extent of the situation,” he said.
Charlemagne said there was a notice from the Ministry of Health which said the house was scheduled for demolition.
He said he immediately spoke to someone who said they didn’t know someone was living in the house because of its state. They assured that as long as someone lived in there, it would not be demolished.
At the back of the house, Charlemagne showed a tight space in a doorway in what appeared to be the kitchen, where he said his father slept on a small sponge for a mattress. There were also a few kitchen utensils, some clothes, towels and a chair and a table in the space.
Charlemagne revealed he suffered from a growing tympanic tumour for the past ten years, which made him ill. He is currently living at someone, said he could barely work and what little money he made could not assist with his father’s situation.
When contacted, parliamentary representative and Minister of Housing Chris Gibbs said he had visited the neighbourhood before in search of Poleon but he was not there. He revealed that someone in the neighbourhood informed him that Poleon did not live at the home, but usually came there in the morning to hang out and then he left.
“It is a situation where it is his community and if he lived in that community a long time, he would want to go back in that community because he has a bond with it,” Gibbs said.
However, he assured he would go there on Wednesday in hopes of finding Poleon and determine a solution for him to rejoin his community.
In response to the minister, Charlemagne confirmed his father lived in the home and he invited Gibbs to reach out to him so they could have a discussion about the situation.
