Displaced by thugs - Senior wants a place to call home

Mavis Welch has been without a stable place to call home for the past 11 years. She said that she was forced to move out of the place she calls home after it was captured by young men.

With nowhere to turn, the 68-year-old said that she spends her nights in abandoned buildings in Kingston.

"Me mother die and leave a place give me and me daughter but me don't live there because some boys take it over say them a bad man and we can't stay with them because a serious time now," Welch told THE STAR as she explained her pityful circumstances.

The senior, who sells small portions of seasoning and condiments in the downtown area, says the amount that she earns is hardly enough for her to survive.

"I try to buy little pepper and thyme to sell back and survive, and sometimes people help we and give us clothes and stuff like that," Welch said.

Having endured untold hardships over the past decade, Welch is hoping for a miracle of sorts to turn her situation around. In fact, when THE STAR spoke with her last Thursday, she said it felt as if her prayers for help are about to be answered.

"Every day me pray and ask God to send me some help because me a get old and me can't be on the street. So just in case if anything is to happen, like me get really sick, I have a roof over my head," she said. Without a place to call a safe haven, Welch has been aimless roaming the city.

When the rain fall

"A lady make me and my daughter stay in a room up a Bond Street but we don't know when she will say we have to leave," she said. "The place don't good either because when the rain fall we wet up but we just all about for a while now."

Welch's only wish for this season and forever is to get a place of her own.

"My wish is to get a nice little place to live so we can bathe and take care a we self and feel comfortable," she said "It would mean so much if someone can help me so I can leave off the street, me and my daughter are trying but nothing is working out and we don't have any help."

The elder detailed that her daughter, 38, often tries to help out with the little she makes from her housekeeping job, but it is not enough.

"Me daughter do some washing uptown for a lady and she will give me a money," she said "I try to buy little pepper and thyme to sell back and survive, and sometimes people help we and give us clothes and stuff like that."

She added: "I have three children in foreign but them nah help we so me don't think about them."

Those who wish to assist Mavis Welch may contact her daughter Nadine Brown at

876-546-4223