Owner of Unity House, a home for senior citizens, is appealing to family members to come forward to not only identify their family members, but to lend monetary assistance.

Owner Rev. Janet Smith-Butler said the family members she found are extremely cold and the homes dependence on the pension from the elderly living there is not enough.

Following the death of an individual at the home a few weeks ago, Rev Smith-Butler said she can no longer operate the home on her own.

“You can’t just look and say I do not know, he’s a human being and he should be buried and that goes for the rest of them, I’m not only talking about him, ” she said.

“I’m speaking about the rest of the family members that I’ve begged over and repeatedly to come and talk to me and let them fill out an affidavit…so that they could get something from these people when they die, not for me it has to be for them.

The government cannot make out a cheque for me. The government has to make the cheque out for the undertaker or for them and it’s a sin and a shame that there are so many people in the morgue.”

Some 20 persons and several staff members are currently at the home and she says it has been this way for three years now and it simply not fair.
“You cannot let your family suffer so,” she said.
“I try to hustle and call people and sometimes it’s hard to deal with the people because you get insulted. Two to four meals a day, pampers, food and it’s not fair.”
Unity House, which is a non-profit organization, has been around for nearly 30 years.