A?landlord?is questioning Government’s obligation to people who were wards of the state for all of their childhood.
She did so after she was informed by the Welfare Department on Monday that it would no longer be paying rent on behalf of two teenage brothers, who up until six months ago were resident at a children’s home.
Nineteen-year-old Akeem and Matobo, 16, as well as their 23-year-old brother, Renaldo, and 21-year-old sister Keeba, all grew up in either the Sterling Children’s Home or the Nightingale Home. They also have a 14-year-old sister who is a ward at a home.
However, when they attained the age of 16 they all had to leave the state-operated institutions which had been their homes from the time they were babies.
The children have been living with their mother, Margaret Gollop, along with a six-year-old brother, in three rooms at a Bank Hall, St Michael house, rented by landlord A. Mangera. But with only Margaret working, the family is in dire straits and Margaret has been unable to pay her rent.
As a result, while the Welfare Department was only paying rent for Akeem and Matobo, the landlord said she went to the Welfare Department’s offices to ask assistance for the mother in paying her rent, too, because she was in arrears of $4 000.
