It's the mother of all election promises: 10,000 homes in 5 years. It was a grand figure, and a great dream, but actually delivering on that promise proved problematic. There's never been any independent confirmation to say that those homes were built, and of those that were, many are substandard, the product of public pork consumed for private profit. But you don't have to tell all that to Hazel King. She came to us to say that her home, only four years old, is simply not worth the suffering it's causing her.
50-year-old Hazel King known in her neighborhood as 'Ma Haze' moved into her home on Welch Street 4 years ago. What was supposed to have been a lifetime's dream come through has now turned into a living nightmare. The water stains in her ceiling in the entire house pin point to the exact spots of her suffering.
Hazel King,
"From I got into this house in 2001 the 9th of April I had that leak, that very first leak, and I went to Housing and told them and they sent to fix it. And couple months after when a hard rain came it started to leak so that leak has been there for four years. I've sit down and bear and grin and I don't know what to do."
King says last month she visited the Housing Department which is responsible for the construction of the building to see if she could get relief. This is what they told her.
Hazel King,
"She told me after a year they no longer are concerned with my house."
Now she says she has nowhere to turn. Reflecting on it all, she concludes that when housing was booming, wastage was high and shoddy jobs became the order of the day.
Hazel King,
"They didn't' build it good. This house wasn't built good because if it was built good it wouldn't have leaked. Every angle leaks, only the living room doesn't. I will watch and see after this what will happen and if nothing happens I will take the mortgage money and try to fix it because I have no money. I won't do two jobs because I used to have two jobs but I won't do that. The house is leaking from I got in here. It is a shame it is leaking. I believe that when you get a house, you supposed to get a proper house and if the house is not leaking and it takes four years after then to leak then I would fix it but from the moment I moved in, it has been leaking and I am a single person and I am only do one job. I only work two hours every evening and I have no money. I won't pay my mortgage money this month and I will fix it with that money and believe me I ain't going to bow down."
And while she will not bow down what she does find herself doing is shuffling and shuffling a lot. And if her problem is not addressed this couch will continue to be her bed - the place where she sleeps and the only place where her dream of a new home has a happy ending. Where her dream of a fit home will all because of poor workmanship on what was to have been this woman's castle.
King has paid her mortgage up to July but now says she'll use her mortgage money to pay for the repairs.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
