Bermudian maid was forced to move into a garage after being threatened with eviction on Friday.

And a mother of four being evicted from her Sandys Parish house will be homeless at the end of this month if she cannot find a new place for her and her family to live by then.

Mother-of-two Pamela Simons said she has done housework for the past 28 years and currently holds two part-time jobs.

Ms Simons was renting a two-bedroom apartment on Palmetto Road in Pembroke for $850 per month before being threatened with eviction.

She is the mother of a 17-year-old daughter and a 13-year old son -- and receives less than $70 a week in child support.

While Ms Simons admitted that she was in arrears some years ago to the tune of $8,500, she said she is proud that she has managed to whittle her debt down to about $3,000 despite supporting two children and receiving little outside help.

But her current financial situation is desperate. She said she fell behind in her rent again, and stated: "I pay as much as I can, but I've got to eat.'' Ms Simons criticised the Social Services department and Health and Family Services Minister Wayne Furbert.

She claims she called Mr. Furbert last Monday to tell him of her impending eviction.

And she said the Minister told her to call her case worker at Social Services.

Ms Simons claimed she gave Social Services copies of the eviction notice, her Belco bill and her children's birth certificate.

But Ms Simons said her social worker has done nothing to help her. "She hasn't even returned my phone calls,'' she added.

"My case worker hasn't done anything -- and she told me, `next time, make an appointment'.'' When the date of the eviction loomed closer and Ms Furbert still had not heard from her case worker, she said she tried calling Mr. Furbert several times -- but claimed he did not return her calls, either.

And now Ms Simons will be paying $250 per month to live in a Southampton garage with her two children and all their belongings.

She said she hoped there would be a space to lay her bed once she put her furniture and belongings inside.

She noted that a Social Services employee made a last-ditch effort by calling her -- after the time she should have been evicted.

The employee -- who was not her case worker -- offered her a place to stay at the Physical Abuse Centre in St. George's although she was not being physically abused.

Marsha Butterfield, a mother of four, is currently on the Bermuda Housing Corporation's (BHC) emergency housing list.

She is paying $1,700 per month for a three-bedroom apartment at Malabar Close, but said her landlord told her during the Cup Match holiday that he wanted her out by the end of August.

Ms Butterfield could not find another apartment, but a September court hearing ordered her out of her home by the end of the month.

But Ms Butterfield, a housekeeper at Elbow Beach Hotel who has been laid off since November, says she is panicked about finding housing for her and her children.

"I really have nowhere to go...at this point, I see myself on the street,'' she said. "And finding an apartment -- any apartment -- is pretty hard right now.

Mothers facing housing crisis "Wayne Furbert's secretary told me to call the Housing Corporation, but he never spoke with me directly.

"And the Housing Corporation says there's no housing, but I've seen vacant places on Kitchener Close. There's a long waiting list for emergency housing, but my long line is just until next week Wednesday,'' she added.

Ms Simons' and Ms Butterfield's situations may not be as unique as hoped: The Royal Gazette understands that the number of people who are on Bermuda Housing Corporation's emergency housing list has doubled from 30 to 60 in the past few weeks.

And Coalition for Affordable Housing chairperson Rosemarie Pedro said that many of the people she was currently advocating for -- who either had been evicted or threatened with eviction -- were domestic or hotel workers.

BHC manager Edwin Cowen was unavailable for comment and Mr. Furbert did not return phone calls yesterday.

Anyone who may be able to offer Ms Simons or Ms Butterfield assistance is asked to contact Rosemarie Pedro on 295-9615 after 6 p.m.

GOVERNMENT GVT