Christmas is the time for family but a San Pedro man is separated from his family tonight because they've been put out of their home. Gerald Banner says he's doing all he can to put a roof over his family's head this Christmas but so far, he's been fighting a losing battle. But it's not a classic case of the small man being chanced; there's some nuance to this one: banner had been warned he was building on the wrong property and still went ahead. That was years ago. But the chickens have come home to roost at turkey time. And this morning in the San Mateo area of Northern Ambergris Caye - this struggling father told us about his blue, blue Christmas.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
This is how Gerald Banner's house looks today - this stock of zinc is what's left of his roof and workers acting on a court order have been dismantling it because he built on someone else's property. But that was eight years ago when the former chair of the town lots committee pointed him to this piece of land.
Gerald Banner,
"As they give me I came to build on it one time. I didn't waste right. Afterwards in three months he passed with his boat and said I have to go to his office because he did he mistake, he didn't check the file and so on. I told him he had already given me this. He said I had to go there because I had to come off and this and that. I told him I will come off but he will put me and family in a nice hotel and then if they break down my house, they
will relocate me to another area and build a nice house. He said he wasn't on that. He said he wanted me off the land and from that day he came out from out of our Chairman and another guy, Aiden Salazar, is the Chairman. I went to Aiden too, told him the same thing. Nothing was done, they still pushed me and pushed me.
Now I am living here for ten years and he wants me to come out because he said when he checked the files, they had another owner on it. I told him that is not my affair. He gave this to me. He said he wanted me out the land so now in ten years I have been all Belmopan up and down but nothing get done."
Jules Vasquez,
You have any title?
Gerald Banner,
"Nothing, they haven't given me nothing. I was fighting to get my lease and they didn't want to give me. They want me off the land."
Jules Vasquez,
Somebody who doesn't sympathize with you will say that they gave you the warning three months after you came here, you should have just heeded it and tried to get something else.
Gerald Banner,
"Well I told him to locate another area for me and build because I broke it down it wouldn't be good but he said I have to come off. I told him to find a waterside by another area and build something and then I will be willing to come out but he wanted me to come out on nada, without giving me anything so I told him I will remain here. I am not moving."
And now he can't pick up the pieces as fast as they are taking them down make it clear that the place that he and his family of 5 called home is no more - and only faint remembrances of their existence still remain: the odd clothespin, the disused jacket - and only the sky is witness to the love and prayer that that once prevailed under this roof.
Gerald Banner,
"My situation right now is that I don't have no place to stay, nowhere."
Jules Vasquez,
What is your family status?
Gerald Banner,
"My family status is that they are stressed out. I got five of us who were living here. I have a little son four years old and the girl is 17 years old and the boy is 12 and my girl Maria."
Jules Vasquez,
Where did you spend last night?
Gerald Banner,
"Well I slept in my boat. They went with their mom."
Now all he has are memories of a house that was a home and this boat which is hopefully only a temporary home.
And there's a lot to add to this one. First we spoke with the former Chair of the Lots Committee Omar Arceo. He acknowledges that he made an error, and did the best he could to correct it by offering another piece of land and urging Banner to take it - but Banner made it clear he wasn't interested. He says that beyond that, he could do no more. Arceo adds that he was not the one to originally give the land to Banner. He adds that if Banner had followed procedure, this could have been averted.
The current Chair of the Lots Committee Aiden Salzaar acknowledges also that it was an error and says that it's one that he's trying to fix. He says that the Minister of Natural Resources will be out on the island on Thursday and he will try and get a lot assigned for Mr. Banner. As for the house that Banner somehow feels he's entitled to, Salzaar made it clear that he's sensitive to the human aspect of the case, and says he will try and offer some help on the community side.
