HDC demolition drive

A single mother’s dream of moving into her own home was dashed yesterday when the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) demolition crew tore down the house she had built.

The crew swooped down in a squatting area in Couva, destroying her newly constructed house, an unoccupied shack and concrete foundations of two houses that were being built.

The demolition occurred about 11 am in the squatting area of St Andrews, Carli Bay, Couva.

Sally Roopan, 40, expected to move into her one-bedroom wooden house with her three children today. She told Newsday that she looked on helplessly as the wooden and galvanise structure was flattened before her eyes.

Roopan said she was at her job at the Port-of-Spain port when she received a telephone call from her youngest daughter, Stacy, 16, informing her of what was taking place.

Roopan hired a taxi from Port-of-Spain to Couva hoping to arrive before her house was completely demolished. She said, “I pleaded with those men not to break my house but they still went ahead.”

Wiping tears from her eyes, Roopan explained that the house was constructed one month ago, after she won a court battle giving her ownership of the house.

“For two years I was given the right to the house, but I had nowhere to construct it, and when I did, look what happen now.”

She added, “From the day I left my husband to now I struggled to mind my three children without asking anyone for anything. I just feeling like everything gone up in vain.”

Another squatter, Sabeite Brideglal, 30, a mother of three, whose housing foundation was destroyed, said they were never served with any notices. “Officials just came and started smashing and breaking everything, they destroyed all the materials so we cannot even rebuild.”