By Onika James Tuesday, December 23 2008

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No where to go: Keizzy Ali nurses her baby daughter Miracle, centre, yesterday at a shelter in Santa Cruz where they and 14 others have been relocated...

Miracle Ali, four months, her 16-year-old mother Keizzy Ali, and 14 others from Upper Freedom Street, Cocorite, are praying for a real miracle for Christmas.

The five families whose homes collapsed after landslides on Saturday are now staying in a shelter at the Bourg Mulatresse Seventh-day Adventist Church, Lower Santa Cruz.

The families are calling on officials of the Social Services Division and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) to find rental units for them.

The families told Newsday they are distressed and uncomfortable in the cramped space. They also complained they have not received their meals on time.

According to Carl Bonald, an official from ODPM, and Social Development Minister Amery Browne visited them yesterday and suggested renting houses for the families.

“This morning Minister Browne and ODPM people came. They promised us food; but look at the time, it is after 1 pm and nothing come as yet,” Bonald said.

“They told us that by Wednesday they will get a place for us, but it not looking good. We can’t even get food on time, you think they will get us a house. ”

Bonald explained that the families cannot return to Freedoom Street as the ODPM has said the land is unsafe.

Browne yesterday said his ministry is working with the Ministry of Planning, Housing, and the Environment to identify rental units for the families.

“We have the rental facility in place whereby we pay the rents for up to $4,500 per month, and what we also do is provide food hampers, and or the TT card for the families affected,” he said.

Meanwhile, officials attached to the Social Services Division in Diego Martin were called out to Green Hill, Upper Covigne Road yesterday afternoon, following reports that an apartment building and several houses are at risk of collapsing.

La Toya Mark, who lives in the apartment building, said she is “too afraid to stay there another night.” She said the back wall broke down and mud spilled into her apartment.

“There is a senile, elderly woman living upstairs, Dorothy Grey, part of the step to go upstairs by her washed away. This whole building could just come down at anytime.

“I have one-year-old twins and a four-year-old, I cannot stay here. This is an unstable situation,” the concerned mother said.

Social Services Division officials Kurt Charles and Stephen Browne were on hand to compile a report on the conditions at Green Hill. Charles said at least one family will have to be relocated.