by TREVOR YEARWOOD

WHAT MONICA GREAVES, of Wildey, St Michael, calls home is a makeshift wooden shed without electricity, running water or bathroom.

The structure, about nine feet by six feet, is a patchwork of pine, cardboard, plywood and galvanised iron sheets, with a roof that leaks whenever it rains.

The shed sits in the backyard of one of the National Housing Corporation's (NHC) housing units in Factory Avenue, and is a gift from a relative who lives there.

"I have been trying for years to get help," Greaves told the SATURDAY SUN.

"I talked to [Minister of Social Transformation] Trevor Prescod.

"I talked to [Government's advisor on poverty eradication] Hamilton Lashley. I went to see the people at Urban [Development Commission – UDC] and National Housing [Corporation] and all I get is a lot of talk."

Greaves, who is 64 years old and lives on a small pension, fell on tough times two years ago when she was forced to leave a house in My Lord's Hill, St Michael, which the UDC built to replace one she shared with her late husband.

"I spent two Christmases in this shed, and with God's help I don't want to spend another Christmas in it," she said.

The Democratic Labour Party's candidate for St Michael South East, Undene Whittaker, brought Greaves' plight to the attention of the media.

"We have several of these cases of people, including the elderly and the indigent . . . .

"These are all people with pride, humility and decency, but it seems that unless you make a public appeal and beg and show the discomfort and the unhygienic conditions under which people live you are not able to get help," she said.

"There is nothing wrong with aspiring to First World status, but you can't have First World status when you close your eyes and ears to the poor and operate as if they don't exist," Whittaker declared.

Greaves' case should be treated with "urgency and humanity", she said.