WHEN DAVID WILLIAMS came out of prison in 2007, he knew life would have been difficult and that was why he did everything possible not to go back to jail.
He built a small house and worked odd jobsto make ends meet.
But last October his life took a turn for the worse when his house at McClean Road, Silver Sands, Christ Church, was destroyed by fire.
Now the 35-year-old man is living in a galvanised shed, and work has been hard to come by.
He recalled that he was at his mother’s house – two houses away from his home – when his sister told him that his house was burning.
“By the time I ran out there it was flat,” he said, pointing out that he lost a stove and all of his furniture in the blaze. He said he was later informed that someone had set the house on fire.
Now forced to live in a makeshift “home” next door to his mother’s house, he sleeps on a sheet of plywood and cooks outside on a charcoal pot.
But Williams said he was desperate to find somewhere to live because the owner of the land recently informed him that she was “coming for her land”.
The young man said he could not live at his mother’s house because he was in no position to make a financial contribution.
“Right now my sister is the only one working and she does control things. I can’t go there to live because I am not working and I can’t help pay bills. I does only get a little money from selling bottles,” he said.
So far he has sought assistance from both Minister of Housing Michael Lashley and his constituency representative Denis Lowe. “They tell me that they would get back to me, but I ain’t hear nothing,” he said.
Williams said he had also been sending out applications for employment and even submitted one to the Skills Training Board but has received no response. He is of the opinion that he is being discriminated against because he spent time in prison.
“I can’t live like this. In there does leak when it rains. Wuh they want me to do – rob or steal?” he asked.
Up to yesterday, I was unable to contact Lowe, who was attending a Cabinet meeting.
