Fabien gifted another chance after eviction

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Sascha Wilson

Well-wishers, friends, family, colleagues, and fans of radio and television personality Errol Fabien have come to his rescue and raised the $350,000 needed to save his home.

Fabien was being thrown out of his St Joseph home yesterday morning for failing to meet his mortgage commitments but the bank gave him a 24-hour reprieve.

A GoFundMe page was set up by his brother Simon Fabien to raise US$60,000. Within seven hours, 987 people had donated more than US$62,428 and the donations were still climbing.

The country woke up to the surprising news when Fabien did a live Facebook broadcast of the eviction. Fabien lamented that he had nowhere to go and pleaded for a place to stay. As he walked through his home, Fabien said, “Officers of the court arrived at my house this morning and they are about to put me out. They are going to turn off everything here, shut down the station so I just saying goodbye to everybody. I don’t know how to deal with this kind of thing. I really don’t know how to deal with this. So they will put everything out by the road and I have no place to live. If anybody could suggest to me where I could go to live. I would like somebody to tell me where I could go to live right now. I’ve tried. I paid the bank significant money and they putting me out for nothing…I have nowhere to live and if anybody out there could help me with a place to live. It is just amazing to see how these things happen in the flash of an eye.”

The video showed people moving out items from inside his house under police supervision.

“I gave the bank everything I had, everything, everything, everything.” Guardian Media learned that a high-ranking official contacted the bank after being alerted about the situation.

Fellow entertainer and close friend Nikki Crosby admitted that she was literally in tears.

“It has been a very emotional day for me because it would not be a Nikki if not for Errol Fabien. He is the one who has encouraged me and all the years it has been Errol and Nikki.”

She said Fabien would have been able to meet his financial commitment but he invested financially in Gayelle to keep it afloat.

“He took out a mortgage for Gayelle and hard times have hit all creatives (because of COVID-19). We are struggling with Gayelle.”

She said the government should be investing in Gayelle.

“We have been on an emotional roller coaster with this COVID. I real cry today, the whole COVID thing, seeing Errol, a man who has done so much for T&T, not only comedy but his drug work.”

Were it not for Fabien, she believes there would be more criminals in the country.

However, she said the outpouring of support for Fabien from people locally and internationally had been amazing.

Speaking before the limit was met, she was confident that he would get the money to save his home. Crosby felt the move to evict Fabien from his home which he lived in for years was cruel.

“We understand the bank but these are hard times for everybody…I saw myself there (in Fabien’s situation). So many of us are wondering what will happen with our jobs, families, and homes. It’s a wake-up call for everybody.”

She said he would not be the last person to be in this situation.

“It was so easy for the government to jump in and save CLICO. What about the cultural downfall? Isn’t that just as important?”

Fabien who contested the St Joseph seat in the recent general election as an independent candidate could not be reached on his cellphone.