The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER-of-three says she needs a job and approximately $1,600 for the four months of rent she owes her landlord.

Although she has a home-based nail business, 35-year-old Tassia Thompson said she was unable to pay her $400 monthly rent from March to now. The pandemic prevented her from making much money as her customers could not come to her home.

She said she sent a letter to the Department of Social Services for rental assistance, but the mother explained the letter was not taken and a definitive answer was not given on whether she will get any help.

Ms Thompson said: “They told me come back – I went back. They say they was going to call me. I gave them the number. I haven’t gotten any calls.

“Then the lady asked me…if I was working when the pandemic (happened). I told her yeah I was working home based. She said, oh she don’t know if they’re going to give anything with assistance. So right now I’m on my own.”

Ms Thompson said she is struggling on her own as her parents and grandmother are deceased. Her oldest child’s father gives her a bit of food and lunch money, but does not help with bills, she said. Her other children’s father went to another island to find a job. She calls this whole ordeal “frustrating”.

“Sometimes I just want to give up because it’s so hard and then some people they don’t understand that,” she told The Tribune. “I’ve done some things in my life and I don’t want to do those things because I have kids to live for. . .”

The 35-year-old mother understands her landlord has a limit and recalls being warned about receiving an eviction letter.

“She said she’s gonna give us an eviction letter…she wants to know know when she getting the (rent) – that’s her main concern,” she said.

“When she comes around, she don’t come around nice. In her mind all she saying is ‘oh the country then open so everybody should be back to work and y’all should then have my money.’ Like next week, yeah they will be there bright and early probably seven, eight o’clock in the morning to come and get their money….the landlord and her brother.”

If you would like to offer Ms Thompson assistance, please contact ebowleg@tribunemedia.net.