Orchid Gardens pensioners say year-long leaks remain unfixed

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

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Pen­sion­ers Ber­nice James-Roach, 77, and her hus­band Hol­lis­ter Roach, 84, ex­pect­ed their Or­chid Gar­dens apart­ment in Pleas­antville to be a place where they could en­joy their re­tire­ment.

In­stead, they say their home has been over­tak­en by leak­ing ceil­ings, damp walls, wa­ter stains and the con­stant wor­ry of when the prob­lem will be fixed. The Roach­es, who have lived in the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) com­mu­ni­ty for more than a decade, oc­cu­py a ground-floor apart­ment in a three-storey build­ing. They say wa­ter has been seep­ing in­to their home from an apart­ment above for more than a year, af­fect­ing ar­eas in­clud­ing their bed­room, bath­room and hall­way.

Dur­ing a vis­it to the apart­ment last week, Guardian Me­dia ob­served wa­ter run­ning down an in­te­ri­or wall, wa­ter stains on af­fect­ed ar­eas, what ap­peared to be mould-like growth on walls and dam­aged and miss­ing ceil­ing tiles.

Vis­i­ble wa­ter stain­ing could al­so be seen on the ex­te­ri­or of the build­ing above the Roach­es’ apart­ment.

James-Roach said she has been re­port­ing the is­sue since the mid­dle of last year, con­tact­ing HDC of­fices in Mon Re­pos and Port-of-Spain, but a per­ma­nent so­lu­tion has not been found.

“This prob­lem I am hav­ing is with the wa­ter that is stem­ming from up­stairs apart­ment straight down in­to my own,” she said.

James-Roach said while HDC of­fi­cials have com­mu­ni­cat­ed be­tween of­fices and work­ers have vis­it­ed the apart­ment sev­er­al times, no re­pairs have been com­plet­ed.

“They sent out peo­ple about two or three times. They just come, and that is all. Noth­ing about fix­ing or noth­ing tak­ing place.”

She said no tests or as­sess­ments were con­duct­ed to de­ter­mine the source of the wa­ter in­tru­sion, and the con­tin­ued mois­ture has left vis­i­ble dam­age through­out the apart­ment.

“The prob­lem is that the wa­ter is steadi­ly com­ing in­to my apart­ment and it is mak­ing mould on the wall,” James-Roach said.

She ex­pressed con­cern about the pos­si­ble im­pact the con­di­tions could have on her­self and her hus­band be­cause of their ages.

“We can get sick. We are two aged peo­ple. We can get sick, and it could be fa­tal.”

The cou­ple said the dam­age has al­so af­fect­ed the apart­ment’s ceil­ing. James-Roach re­called a night when one of the ceil­ing tiles in their bed­room be­came sat­u­rat­ed and fell while she was in bed.

“It near­ly fell on me.”

She said they are forced to con­stant­ly man­age wa­ter col­lect­ing on the floor, plac­ing ma­te­ri­als down to ab­sorb it and pre­vent falls.

“I al­ways have to have things to put on the floor, be­cause we could walk on the wa­ter and skate in it and fall. So I al­ways have to have things there to suck up that wa­ter,” she said.

For Hol­lis­ter Roach, the is­sue has af­fect­ed their lives in more ways than the phys­i­cal dam­age to their home.

“In every way,” he said when asked how the sit­u­a­tion has af­fect­ed him.

Roach said the con­di­tion of the apart­ment and is­sues with­in the wider Or­chid Gar­dens com­mu­ni­ty have tak­en a toll on him.

“Dai­ly, when you wake up in the morn­ing, you see that,” he said.

Asked how his day goes from there, he re­spond­ed: “Rot­ten, rot­ten. Bad. Sad.”

He said hear­ing his wife re­peat­ed­ly com­plain about the con­di­tion of their home has al­so been dif­fi­cult.

James-Roach said her great­est dis­ap­point­ment has been what she de­scribed as a lack of ur­gency in ad­dress­ing the prob­lem. She said work­ers vis­it­ed again re­cent­ly and in­di­cat­ed that re­pairs would be car­ried out, but she has not been giv­en a time­line.

The Roach­es said they are aware of oth­er apart­ments in the build­ing ex­pe­ri­enc­ing sim­i­lar prob­lems.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed the HDC for a re­sponse on the re­port­ed wa­ter in­tru­sion, whether an as­sess­ment has been con­duct­ed, the planned re­pairs, and whether oth­er apart­ments in the build­ing have been af­fect­ed, but did not re­ceive a re­sponse up to pub­li­ca­tion time.