Housing Development Corporation (HDC) managing director Brent Lyons yesterday committed to helping Jasmin Reyes and her paralysed son Randy, saying she will soon be accommodated in a suitable alternative unit.
Lyons told the T&T Guardian the HDC had investigated Reyes’ plight and “empathises with her situation” and confirmed she was contacted yesterday by an HDC official through the Social and Allocations Departments.
“Ms Reyes was offered an available two- bedroom ground floor handicapped unit at one of our developments. Ms Reyes indicated that she has three other children and would require a three-bedroom unit. Regrettably, at the moment there are no available three-bedroom ground floor handicap units. The HDC is committed to assisting Ms Reyes and is seeking an alternative suitable unit,” Lyons said.
“Ms Reyes has indicated that she will continue to wait until the HDC can identify/locate such a unit. The HDC is confident that Ms Reyes will soon be accommodated in a suitable alternative unit.”
Reyes and her son’s story shot to the spotlight yesterday after their plight was highlighted in the T&T Guardian.
The young mother of five said she is very concerned for her bedridden son as she currently lives on the seventh floor in an HDC apartment building at East Grove, Valsayn. She said it is difficult for her to take him down from the building for medical appointments whenever the building’s elevator is out of order.
Reyes said when she was allocated the HDC apartment two-and-a-half years ago, she explained her son’s condition and was advised to take the apartment until she could be relocated to a ground floor apartment. Randy was just 14-years-old when he was struck by a stray bullet in the back of the head while playing a game of football with some friends at his Diego Martin home in 2014.
Housing Minister Randall Mitchell also said in Senate yesterday that he had instructed the HDC to assist Reyes after learning of her plight from the T&T Guardian. He confirmed the HDC had offered alternative accommodation more befitting of the circumstances.
Yesterday, Reyes confirmed the call from the HDC official.
“They told me there is one that is ground floor and wheelchair ready in Malick, but it is two-bedroom. But I explained to her that I have other children, smaller ones and that having them in the same room with Randy may be uncomfortable for them, especially when I am seeing about him and suctioning his tracheotomy tubes.
“It will cause some disturbance to them with regards to their sleep so what they told me was that they will keep looking and for me to keep calling them to remind them.”
She also added that an official from the Ministry of Health contacted her to find out how they can help.
“I told them that I am in dire need of a professional nurse at least to help me out for a few hours in the day so that at least I can get some sleep, because it’s over two years that I am working around the clock with Randy to see about him and make sure that he is well taken care of. I am no professional nurse but I try my best for him, but I need to have that professional nurse around too.”
Several calls came in to the T&T Guardian yesterday from people wanting to help Reyes. She said she was “very much grateful” for this outpouring of love.
