An overwhelming, but not always positive response has been received from the public concerning a story in this weeks? about a pregnant 22-year-old mother of four who is due to be evicted from her home this weekend.

A deluge of letters, telephone calls and e-mails made their way to the newsroom yesterday from concerned members of the public who thought Diane McQueen was irresponsible in her choice to have five children before her 23rd birthday.

One reader asked why Miss McQueen did not use birth control and where the fathers of her four ? soon to be five ? children were and why they did not contribute towards rent.

?Why should the tax money of hard working Bermudians go towards paying someone who, by choice, has more children to care for and feed than they can afford,? an anonymous writer asked.

Miss McQueen approached this week for help in finding an affordable home after she was denied social assistance and help from the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

She has been on a waiting list for housing for three years and could not get social assistance recently because, after this weekend, she will not have a permanent address.

Miss McQueen lives in Khyber Heights in Warwick with her four children and her mother, but the house was sold at the beginning of the year and the new landlord asked her to move so that he could work on the property.

She said her new landlord had given her more than two months to find a new home ? the deadline being this weekend.

However, her greatest concern was a verbal warning from her social worker a week ago ? find a house or lose your children.

Miss McQueen said her social worker had told her her children would be placed in foster care until she found a permanent home for them.

She said she couldn?t bare to be parted from her children ? not even for a day.

When told what some of the comments from members of the public were, a tearful Miss McQueen yesterday said she had never asked for help from anyone until now and never expected to be criticised by the public for doing so.

?Not that it?s anyone?s business, but I was on birth control when I got pregnant with the first two and if I?d had an abortion, they probably would have had even worse things to say about me,? she said.

Miss McQueen admitted that she was still married, but said she and her husband did not live together.

Her husband, a Jamaican national, supported one of the children which was his.

?More than he has too,? she said.

She said she planned on having her ?tubes tied? after the birth of her third child, but then got pregnant again before they could perform the operation.

?Not that it?s anyone?s business, but I?ve already discussed having my tubes tied after this birth,? she said, adding that she did not want any more children.

Miss McQueen was angry and upset that the public should question her morals when she had risked everything to ask for help ? including her dignity.

?I don?t expect tax payers to help me. I never asked Government for more than they?re willing to give anyone else in my situation. I went to the newspaper because I thought maybe someone knew of a house that we could afford,? she said.

Miss McQueen?s has an eight-year-old, a three-year-old, a one-and-a-half year-old, ten-month old baby. Her fifth child is due on May 19.