Sharon Bain
By EARYEL BOWLEG
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
A WOMAN is desperate for help, saying she needs to pay her landlord more than $2,000 today or will be evicted.
The Tribune met 55-year-old Sharon Bain outside the Department of Social Services on Baillou Hill Road yesterday, where she was seeking assistance.
“I need somebody to help me before tomorrow,” Ms Bain tearfully pleaded, saying she needs to pay her landlord $2,500 owed by today to avoid being evicted.
She is one of the many Bahamians facing hard times during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said to The Tribune: “Right now, I sitting down here and I’ve been here since after eight waiting on them to see if they could help me ‘cause I’ll get put out my apartment.
“I feel bad, I can’t do nothing because the little money I’m putting in his hand (the landlord) it ain’t saying nothing.”
Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced back in April there should be “no evictions between now and the end of June unless the tenant had been legally eligible for eviction before April”. The initiative gives tenants three months relief between April and June in which 40 percent rent payment is postponed. People have 12 months to repay the deferred amount.
However, the 55-year-old admitted she owed her landlord before the country went into a COVID-19 lockdown.
With tears streaming down her face, she explained her fears that her water and power might be turned off due to her inability to pay her rent.
Ms Bain said: “I can’t live without no water and light off…it ain’t off yet but by me ain’t having nothing to give him, he could turn it off.
“I don’t have no place to go. I can’t hurt myself. I can’t kill myself. I just need help. . .how in the world I could find me $2,500 by Friday and ain’t nothing I could do,” she said. “I can’t carry him to court. He could carry me to court ‘cause he got that little change….he could put me out of his apartment today…”
Despite doing side cleaning jobs, she is still in desperate need as her family is not able to help her at this time. Only her cousin provides her with two days of work.
She said: “They have their own little stress….. no one giving you nothing. My sister live with her husband…my two nephews…they ain’t in Nassau and ain’t no boat for them to send me nothing. I ask couple people for help but everybody crying poor mouth.”
If you would like to offer Ms Bain assistance, please contact ebowleg@tribunemedia.net.
Comments
Clamshell 4 years, 4 months ago
While I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody in this situation, I found it ironic that Ms. Bain would complain, “I ask couple people for help but everybody crying poor mouth” — while she, herself, is “crying poor mouth.”
banker 4 years, 4 months ago
This problem with folks will only grow and sadly, I can't think of any solutions other than charity. But the problem will be so big, that charity will not be able to cope.
Clamshell 4 years, 4 months ago
I fear you’re right, Banker. The loss of tourism revenue is staggering, will remain so, and will “trickle down” to every layer of society. This is going to take the sort of deep, coordinated commitment that the USA instituted during the Great Depression — and good luck with that.
TalRussell 4 years, 4 months ago
Ma Comrade Banker, first, they'll be required to pay the red coats government's work permit fees?
Shaping up where the economic fallout on the other side of COVID-19 will be pockets and bank accounts felt more powerfully worse and lasting than the virus and Hurricane Dorian combined - to be measured in the billions and billions of dollars. The colony is approaching a financial makeover like never seen in the long history we colony of 700 out islands and cays. There could be a coming of a total breakdown of society - lasting over a period of ten years.
Clamshell 4 years, 4 months ago
Sadly, that could be true. And likely as not the government’s cure will be something along the lines of advising Bahamians who do not have a government job to grow tomatoes in their backyard and make a living selling them to each other. And be sure to charge that VAT!
TalRussell 4 years, 4 months ago
Scary say this but some we are sensing there is but a thin thread wearing even thinner, before the PopoulacesOrdinary, start to ignore the government's failed policies and undelivered promises to decide to fend for themselves. Abacoians and Grand Bahamalanders both have done reached the breaking point.
Clamshell 4 years, 4 months ago
Andros close, too.
UN 4 years, 4 months ago
They always manage to find someone who is ‘worse off’. One eye, one toe, going blind, pinched nerve, hungry crying on leg kids, etc. Warped competition. But are those poor souls being analyzed by everyone? What happened to putting the truth out there? Can’t even trust the news. It’s all about making Bahamians look good. They get to enjoy their free speech while being dishonest. She is our King Solomon without all the luxury (we get to use her to boost our egos). No wonder many kids are so bitter and angry - lunatics are raising them (no role models in sight).
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