PORTLAND, JAMAICA ( Living in squalor) : Ural Taylor, 81-year-old blind Portland man desperately seeks help to replace dirt floor

 By Everard Owen Observer writer  Monday, February 15, 2016    

An 81-year-old visually impaired man is desperately in need of help to vacate the dirt-floor one room he now calls home in Boston, Portland.

A make shift bed, clothing and kegs of water are the
 only items in the room that Ural Taylor calls home.

The only items inside the ply room are a makeshift bed consisting of some boards put together, some water jugs, and a few items of clothing hanging on the wall. Whenever it rains, the dirt floor is transformed into a mud trough.

Ural Taylor said he lost his sight over two decades ago after an injury to his eye gradually developed into glaucoma, resulting in him going totally blind.

“I was clearing the land to plant some pumpkin when di stick juck mi in mi eye. The place turn dark and a mi alone did deh a di bush. After a while mi manage to come home and it no get better since dat but worse” he said. Since then Taylor’s life has taken a downward spiral as the senior citizen was forced to live in squabble as he is no longer able to fend for himself.

The ply board room is located some ways from the outside toilet, which Taylor has great difficulty getting to as he is forced to feel his way to the facility with the help of a cord attached to both buildings.

His situation was made even worse as one of his three sons died, another went missing six years ago, and the other he has not been in touch with since 2009.

The one light at the end of the tunnel is his nephew who provides him with daily meals. Unfortunately, Taylor said his nephew and other family members who pitch in when they can are faced with their own financial constraints and, therefore, are not in a position to improve his living conditions. more