The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller said yesterday if the government can spend millions of dollars on Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival, officials can also afford to “put the damn people of Jubilee Gardens” in motels instead of forcing residents to sleep on a “cot in a cold gym.”

In an interview with The Tribune at the Kendal G L Isaacs Gymnasium - a designated shelter for displaced people affected by a raging dump fire - Mr Miller said he was “shocked” when he saw where the residents were being housed.

He said dozens of his constituents have called him complaining that there is no privacy in the gym and the sleeping areas are not adequate for families.

“If you could pay for carnival, deal with the damn people who are stressed,” Mr Miller told The Tribune. “Nothing is more paramount than the health of your people. Would you come here and live for four days? Why you expect other people to come? If you are displacing me, put me somewhere half decent. Don’t think these damn ‘rinky dink’ hotels any good either. They are not the best in the world but they are more comfortable than this. I am shocked that this is what they set up here and say people should be living in, I am really shocked.”

Residents in Jubilee Gardens and the surrounding areas were forced to evacuate their homes on Sunday after a massive fire at the landfill blanketed the community in thick, black hazardous smoke. Embers from the nearby fire also threatened area homes on Sunday, however officials have said no homes were destroyed from the blaze.

On Monday, Minister of the Environment Kindred Dorsett said residents will have to wait at least five to seven days before the evacuation order is lifted and persons are allowed to “safely” return to their homes.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) along with the Department of Social Services opened the gym as a shelter for persons who were forced to evacuate their homes on Sunday. Social workers and members of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force are serving as shelter managers.

Mr Miller, a member of the governing Progressive Liberal Party, said the residents of Jubilee Gardens did not cause the fire and should at the very least be made comfortable since they cannot stay in their homes. He said he will address the matter in the House of Assembly today.

“They voted for me, so they putting the pressure on me and so I will put the pressure on the prime minister and the government,” Mr Miller said.

“I will deal with them tomorrow (Wednesday) in Parliament. I can’t see any grown person sleeping in these, these things for little children to play in not for adults to sleep in,” Mr Miller said, referring to the shelter’s cots.

“No one wants to come here, people called me up to 2am and said they are not coming here. So I told them to go to hotels and the government will fit the bill. Hello. Social Services have certain motels to accommodate them, some are full and some they didn’t call, they only calling the ones they say compliant. The people don’t want to come here, they say it is inadequate and I agree with them. I mean it’s okay if it was a hurricane but if someone cause a fire and I am displaced, you want me to come here for a week?

“No one wants to be anywhere except for their home, appreciate that first, even in the hotel you are not comfortable. When you come in here you sleeping on a cot and there is no privacy and the people raising hell about it, rightfully so. These people have been suffering for 30 years and no government has gotten it right yet. The prime minister said the government is going to take care of these people and I expect them to do that,” Mr Miller added.

One resident affected by the fire, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Tribune that she was refused hotel accommodation by the Department of Social Services because she “made too much money.”

“I came by yesterday morning and I spoke with a Social Services agent and she told me that the only place they had available was here at the gym,” the woman claimed. “Now she said that motel rooms were provided the previous night and she asked me where I stayed, where I worked and where my son went to school.

“None of this matters, whether I am working or not, at the end of the day it’s a crisis and everyone should be treated equally. They are being selective, if they think you can afford to pay for a hotel room, they will make you stay here in the gym. That is the impression I got. When I answered all the questions I was told ‘No, we cannot provide you with a hotel at this time.’ No one wants to stay here, I have a family of four and there is no privacy. There is a long question and answer period, I did not think was necessary, a lot of people didn’t come on Sunday for various reasons and so I think that if you didn’t come on Sunday, you are no longer a priority.”

On Monday, Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin said at least 13 families in the Tall Pines constituency were evacuated from their homes and received temporary accommodations at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

Those families represented 54 people, comprising 34 adults and 20 children, she said.