The Kingston and St Andrew Corporation has, according to Town Clerk Lincoln Evans, “hit a snag” in its plan to demolish some buildings in the Corporate Area in preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup – squatters. “There is squatting in some of the buildings earmarked for demolition,” Evans said yesterday. “We have to be careful how we proceed.”

One of these buildings is located at 67 East Street, which was declared a public nuisance on January 9, and is home to an estimated seven families. The KSAC subsequently passed a resolution for the building to be demolished.

Yesterday, the Sunday Observer visited and talked with some of the people living in the building. They said they were willing to “fix up the front” of the building to avoid having to move.

A notice declaring the building a nuisance was posted January 16, allowing a 14-day period for any adjustment to be made to the building before the KSAC moves forward.

Evans said during this period, an owner can either decide to carry out the demolition himself, refurbish or board up the building.

“We need help,” Aston Thompson, who has lived at the premises for about a year, said. “Mi nuh mean dem fi gi wi everyting enuh, dem gi wi a part an we find di res’,” Thompson added, in reference to the cost of fixing the building. He said the people who live there had decided to start some work on the building soon.

His comments were echoed by Denise Lindsay, a mother of three who has lived at the premises for 13 years. She said, too, that no one had come to talk to them to inform them of the decision to demolish.

“Dem can lick dung dem building if dem want, enuh, but dem should tek into consideration dat people live in dere who nuh have no weh fi guh,” Linsday said.

She said the reason that the authorities should think about what they intend to do was that the people who live in the building are just poor.

“When you live somewhere where is not yours, no title, nothing, you always have to be seeking, but no money,” Lindsay said. “Mi nuh have land, mi nuh have house, neva have a job yet, a jus sell mi sell an throw pardna.”

Another man, Wayne Elliot, said he felt that officials were attempting to hide the ‘sufferers’ from the tourists who will come to the World Cup.

“How can you mask di people dem in you own country? Fi please who? Tourist? If you go inna any odda country, dem suffarah deh pon front-line,” Elliot said.

Claudia Rutty’s worry concerned where she would go, especially with a seven-month-old baby and the fact that all her family – her mother and her siblings – live there with her.

“Wen dem put we out, weh we aguh really guh?” Rutty asked.

The town clerk, Evans, said the residents’ desire for more time to refurbish some parts of the building had been expressed to the KSAC, which is currently “reviewing the request”.

There are at least eight other buildings that the KSAC plans to demolish by the end of February.

mccattyk@jamaicaobserver.com