Remember the Cu-Bel housing factories that were supposed to churn out one house a day? The factories have been dumped in the ashbin of history, and that's a story in itself, but the houses remain. And, for one Ladyville homeowner, who got her Cubel in 2000, it's been crumbling like a house made of gingerbread. I visited her today to witness the spectacle of ruin.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
The Matura family moved into their new home six years ago but just four months after settling in the three bedroom concrete building, the house started falling apart. This is the residence situated at number 270 Mitchell Estate in Ladyville Village. When you look at the property from outside everything seems intact but when you step inside, it's another story.
At first, homeowner fifty six year old Carmelita Matura says she started noticing small lines of cracks in the walls. Today those cracks have not only expanded into gaping holes but the house's foundation has also sunk. On December twentieth, 2000, the family got the Cubel house through the Housing and Planning Department Project Implementation Unit. It costs seventy thousand, eight hundred and fourteen dollars and forty cents and the family has been paying monthly installments of two hundred and ninety five dollars.
In 2001 Matura says she not only took pictures of the initial damage but brought it to the attention of the Housing and Planning Department. But so far nothing has been done and her house continues to deteriorate.
Carmelita Matura, Dissatisfied Cubel Homeowner
"So they tell me that they would send someone to check it out no.
So the young man come and he tell me that he wants me to wait until one year after to see how far the cracks will go, so after the year up, I called back and they sent someone again to check it but the man told me that he did not have any camera to take pictures. So they left it as that and the third year they come and take the pictures and they told me that they would send it to Belmopan and up to now one year and change they do not come back."
Matura says she fears that if she stops paying government the monthly rent they will take away her home. So she's had to do what she can to cover up the defects but she is concern that she is fighting a losing battle.
Carmelita Matura,
"Yes, the cracks they get bigger and bigger. All on the foundation, it is all cracked up and thing you know so I do not know what will happen after this because we try and we try. I am tired of calling of Housing and we do not get nothing to help to fix the house."
Matura who takes great pride in her property has since done some improvements like the construction of this cement fence but she believes after paying over twenty four thousand dollars towards her home it is time for government to do its part.
Carmelita Matura,
"It is very sad to see how the house you know crack up and like that
because when I first get the house I was so happy and now I feel stressed out because it is too much because I am just so afraid that the part off they will collapse or something like that. Well I went to Habet and I get that thing, I think it is putty and I tried my best to fix it for the Christmas and paint over it you know but the crack is getting I think too big. Some areas I could not do nothing about it, it is too big.
We have a lot of cracks in the foundation so I had a box under the bed and when I went in there it was pure wood lice because the wood lice comes from under the foundation you know, through the cracks them. All like when it rains we have to put towels at the door because the water pour in because what happen is that the house sink a lot and the house it is terrible."
Matura says she simply cannot afford to do any more repairs and is pleading to government to do something before the home finally collapses.
Carmelite Matura,
"Because every year it gets worse and worse and worse. So I wish that they can do something about it because I do not have the money to repair it. I am paying three hundred a month, I do not have that type of money to repair the house and I do not think that is my, my job to do to repair a government house. Three times, three times they came here. They know and they see the condition of the house they know about it so I decided to put it on the news so that other people can see the kind of house that we have."
Carmelita Matura says every month they do pay their rent to government. Matura says if it was not for the assistance she has been getting from her family, she does not know what would have happened. Today she is hoping that government will help them to repair the damage. We called for Housing Department boss, Noel Harvey numerous times today, but we were unable to get through.
