Sleepless in squalor

MARYAM GRAZETTE and her family get very little sleep. That is because they are afraid that the dilapidated house they share at Roach Land, Grazettes, St Michael, will fall on them.

“Last night I hardly sleep. All I hear is crack, crack, crack. I do not want that one of these days when the house does decide to fall down that we are in here,” Grazette, 28, said.

Grazette, her father Ashton Cox, mother Beverley Cox, her 36-year-old sister, who has Down’s syndrome, and Grazette’s 11-year-old daughter have had to abandon the front portion of their house because of the partially collapsed roof. Grazette now shares a room with her mother, sister and daughter while the other room is occupied by her father.

They have placed a tarpaulin on the roof to stop the wind and rain but that has offered little help. The floorboards are mostly rotted and falling in. Several windows are boarded up since they cannot be opened and  the family has resorted to stuffing sponge in certain areas to keep out the rain.

Please read the full story in today’s Weekend Nation, or in the eNATION edition.