BRITISH CITIZEN Amanda Bradley Miller is still living on the streets.
Last July this newspaper highlighted her homeless plight, and Bradley Miller, who has been living here for eight years, said her situation had worsened since then.
“I have money to pay rent but nobody won’t rent to me,’ she cried, while sitting on what has become her regular spot at the Speightstown Esplanade.
That is where she has basically been living and sleeping for the past year until a few weeks ago when a nearby resident gave her a temporary lodging.
“I can feed myself and have a shower, but at the end of the day I am still back in the esplanade with a pillow and blanket,” she said.
When her story was first published, Bradley Miller said she had been given accommodation for one week and some organisations provided her with food but most of that help had ended.
She has spent many months sleeping on the cold concrete at the Esplanade with a pillow and blanket, along with five homeless men. She was also forced to bathe in a public bath, which was usually closed on the weekend.
“I should not be living like this,” Bradley Miller said, recalling her once comfortable life when she first moved to Barbados and married a local man, who she fell in love with.
That union ended after four years.
Bradley Miller explained that she lost thousands of dollars when she was “put out” of the home she lived in with her husband and which she had spent thousands of dollars renovating; while she also lost her furnishings.
“Three men owe me a total of $27 500 and I want that back,” she said, pointing out that she was having difficulty recovering the debts even though she had promissory notes to repay from two of the men.
“I feel gutted.”
In addition, Bradley Miller would also like to rent a house in Bathsheba, St Joseph, where she once lived, for between $500 and $700 a month but believes no one would rent to her because people have been “bad-mouthing” her.
“There is a lot of malicious talk in Barbados; people say wicked things about me. I am not a liar and I am not a cheat. I just want to get through and enjoy life,” she said.
Bradley Miller reported that she had gone ahead and filed for citizenship in Barbados. “Hopefully I want to get through with my citizenship and I want a roof over my head.”
mariabradshaw@nationnews.com
