By DARCEL CHOY Saturday, September 8 2012

FRUSTRATION and stress have begun to set in among the Diego Martin/Maraval residents who have occupied the Diego Martin shelter for a month since their homes were flooded out in August.

Three families still occupy the shelter at the Diamond Vale Community Centre, Wendy Fitzwilliam Boulevard, Diego Martin but even as they are thankful for the assistance they have received from citizens, they said yesterday they have reached their limit.

Sarah Foster, a single mother of two, complained Government made several promises to her and the others at the shelter but none was kept.

“The families whose houses are down still have not been relocated. Families whose houses that are still standing, they have been relocated. They have grants and food cards, we don’t,” she said.

Foster said she and her family stayed at the same shelter last year for four months when their home was flooded out.

“We are now back here and we don’t want the same thing to happen. We don’t want to be comfortable here, we need a home,” she said. She said the Diego Martin Regional Corporation provides lunch to the families but they provide themselves with breakfast and dinner. She admitted food donations have gone down and complained about the sleeping conditions at the shelter.

“Only the people of the nation are coming and delivering food, the Muslim community has helped us with a few mattresses. Other than that the sleeping conditions here are very poor, we are on cots and on the floor,” she said.

Kywana Diaz, a mother of three, including a five-month-old baby said everyone in the shelter was becoming frustrated as they were fed up of the promises.

“It has been difficult living here and all we want is a home. We have done so many interviews but nothing is really coming out of it, we need help,” she said.

Samantha Silva lives at the shelter with her parents and son and she said persons from various ministries have taken pictures of her home in Maraval and taken information but nothing else has been done. “They taking pictures, taking names, and we are not getting answers from anyone. Today would be a month we would have been in the shelter. We want a house so we can get our lives back in order,” she said.