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Homeless Chamorro family pleads for help
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Posted on Feb 26 2006
A local family is appealing for the government to help them find a house after being thrown out of their Koblerville home in early February.
Saipan Tribune met Carmen Cepeda, a 40-year-old mother of two, at the Commonwealth Health Center where she was seeking treatment for her 62-year-old mother, Dolores.
Cepeda, who has been unemployed for the past two years, said CHC would not discharge her mother unless she could assure the hospital that they have a place to go where her mother could have a complete recovery.
Cepeda said she and her family returned from Guam in 2004 and were evicted from their bungalow home in Koblerville early this month when the landlord accused her children of doing mischief around his building.
She said the landlord locked them out and until now their belongings are still inside the room.
Consequently, her two sons—Dexter, 9, and Dextro, 12— could no longer go to school because they don’t have clothes to wear and no homes to take their regular baths. Dexter used to go to school at Koblerville Elementary School, while Dextro used to attend Hopwood Junior High School.
She said they already approached some local social service groups like Karidat but she said the group was not able to extend help to them. She also tried to seek help from relatives but most of them are either away or could not extend help.
Cepeda said she also went to the housing agency but was told they would only be included in the waiting list to avail of the housing benefits for the needy.
For a family that only relies on food stamps, Cepeda said, she has nowhere to go and no one to turn to. She is pleading to the government and community for help in either finding a shelter for her family or look for means for them to go back to Guam where they have relatives.
Cepeda said her family currently is being tended to by a social worker who wants to remain anonymous.
