Cast aside by their relatives, who consider them a burden, Evans and Vitra Rajpaul have now made their old run-down Nissan Sunny their home. One month ago, Evans, 53, and his wife of 24 years, Vitra, 61, packed their meagre belongings into the car, after their one-room galvanized home, on the edge of the M2 Ring Road in Picton, collapsed. Now, all Evans wants is a place to call home for Christmas and a bed for his wife, a cancer patient, to lie on comfortably.
“We have no place to go. We spend all day in this car, looking at each other, quarrelling with each other,” Rajpaul told the T&T Guardian “The doctors have given up on my wife. I don’t know how long again she has but I am longing for a bed for her to stretch her legs and get a good night’s rest. I cry when I hear her moaning with pain.”
He explained that he and his wife were evicted from her family’s Tunapuna home seven years ago. He said his relatives at Picton, Diamond Village, San Fernando, also turned them away after his wife was diagnosed with cancer.
Two injuries, one from a fall while working on a construction site and another from a car accident, have left Evans incapacitated. He walks with crutches and is awaiting knee replacement surgery at San Fernando General Hospital next year. He said: “I cannot work. My wife and I both receive disability grant but we are willing to pay a small rent.” They have no children. With tears in his eyes as he sat next to his wife, Evans said it was humiliating for them to be begging but it is his last resort.
“I want a better life. My wife and I park up the vehicle at Palmiste Park and spend the entire day there. When it gets dark, I fill up gallons of water for us to take a bath. “Then I beg for some hot water to make some tea for my wife and look for a secure place to park where we settle for the night,” he added. He said he had walked up and down on his injured leg, going from one shelter to another seeking refuge to no avail.
He said he has responded to advertisements for homes for rent, but the rent was more than they could pay from their disability grant. He also visited the office of his MP, Dr Roodal Moonilal, who is also the Housing Minister, seeking shelter. Contacted on Tuesday, Moonilal said he had directed the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) to call the Rajpauls. “I have directed HDC to call and render assistance in conformity with our emergency shelter policy,” he said.
Vitra Rajpaul confirmed: “Someone from the HDC called my husband and asked where we were staying. The person promised to call us back.” In a telephone interview yesterday, Evans said there was no further contact from the HDC. He said he and his wife were parked up in their vehicle, which is not very wholesome, outside Moonilal’s office, hoping someone would bring them good news.
“Rain pouring down here (Debe). We are getting wet inside this vehicle, please talk to the minister (Moonilal) to get some help for us,” he pleaded.