PLEASE HELP ME!

Homeless mother struggles to regain a roof over her head

HOMELESS AND WITH two daughters to raise, a resident of Mesopotamia is reaching out to the public for help.

As she told the story about how she came to be homeless, tears streamed down LaToya Reviere’s cheeks.

In an interview on Wednesday, the 35-year-old told SEARCHLIGHT that her troubles began in 2014, when a landslide at Mesopotamia, caused by over-saturated soils, swept away her wooden home and all her earthly possessions with it.

She said on her first night of homelessness, she was rescued by then area representative Girlyn Miguel who contacted the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) on her behalf.

Reviere said after an assessment, NEMO informed her that it would be unsafe for her to rebuild on the land. She said they rented an apartment for her at Cane End, and she was placed on the Youth Empowerment Program (YES) for one year, receiving a salary of $400 per month.

She explained that since then it has been a struggle to maintain a stable home for herself and her two daughters, one of whom has kidney disease, because the support she has received and her own efforts are insufficient.

According to Reviere, problems soon arose with her landlord at Cane End because of late payments of the rent by NEMO and with her salary from the YES program being insufficient to make ends meet.

“…Then after the landlord got a problem

with them taking so long to pay her…I told them (NEMO) that I can’t take it anymore, and she (the landlord) was cussing me out and cussing out me daughter, so they (NEMO) told me to find somewhere else to go,” Reviere said.

She said she found a new apartment at Calder and NEMO made an agreement with the landlord to pay her rent for three months.

She said she was unaware the rent was for a limited period, and when the three months ended, she was again in difficulty.

“By that time I only got to pay for one month, because my time was up at the school. My year was up (on the YES program) and I was back to being unemployed.”

Revierre said she turned to the Social Welfare Department for assistance in paying her rent, while she started training to become a home health care provider.

“Welfare only paid for a couple months and because the rent I owed was over $3,000, the money just couldn’t come up…. I would be inside the place lock up, because I was so ashamed that I couldn’t pay.

Then after I trained to be a health care worker, whatever money I could have paid; my salary was basically $500… I gave them four from it and…the public assistance ($225) and the $100 is what we had to live off of.”

Reviere explained that after pressures from other colleagues on the job, she had to quit.

Currently she is a live-in health care worker and she and her daughters (one eight, the other 15) take care of an elderly heart and kidney patient.

However, for LaToya, every day is a walk of faith as there is no certainty about how long she will remain in her current employ.

She said she has managed to come thus far only because of her faith in God and the will to live for her children. She asked persons facing similar challenges to do the same.

LATOYA REVIERE says her faith in God and the need to take care of her children are what are sustaining her through the ordeal