Defiant Wallerfield squatters rebuild

TWO WEEKS after the National Housing Authority (NHA) demolished 17 homes in Wallerfield, residents of the area have already begun reconstruction. On February 14, NHA personnel, accompanied by police officers, invaded Wallerfield and destroyed the homes, and as a result, area residents blocked the roads leading to the village. They also decided to take legal action against the NHA. Although 28 squatters were granted leave to file for judicial review of the NHA’s decision to demolish their homes, San Fernando High Court Judge Gregory Smith refused to grant an order to stop the NHA from destroying the houses. Despite protests and efforts of the squatters’ attorneys, the “demolition team” returned on Carnival Saturday and destroyed 11 other homes. When Newsday visited the area yesterday, the residents stated that, although they know that the NHA can “strike again,”  they will still continue to rebuild their homes because they have nowhere else to go.

David Tavernier, welder and a resident of the area, has been living on the lands for over two years. He stated that he now has to sleep at his workplace at nights because he does not have a home anymore. “I have been living here since 2002. This is my only home,” he said. “I am trying to make a living out here and those people just unfair to come and just take it away,” he added. Tavernier stated that when the destruction team arrived two weeks ago, they started to sledge hammer everything.  “They even damaged my car,” he claimed. “I plan to sue them for all the damages that they caused because this is all I have.” Another resident, who was reluctant to give his name for fear that the police and the NHA will return to destroy his home, stated that he had recently rebuilt his home with new material and no sooner had he done so than the NHA destroyed it.

“All my furniture has been destroyed. Everything is practically gone,” he said. A stone’s throw away from his one-room wooden house, a man with two children, ages one and three, stated that NHA and the police threatened  that they would return to “finish what they had started.” Another resident, Dhararndaye Jaikaran, a  mother of three, said that she had spent over $40,000 to refurbish her home just before Christmas. “It just pains me to see that, after all the money I spent, my home they just sledgehammer to the ground,” she said, “Everytime I lie down on my bed and think about how beautiful my home was it just makes me cry,” she added. She stated that she is waiting on the March 16 court date to decide whether or not she will rebuild.

“I feel if I rebuild and they come to destroy my home I will not come out. They will have to destroy it with me in it,” she said. She conceded that since the demolition she has not gone to work because her home is not secure. “I know that I might not have a job again because of this,” she said. Two of her children were  able to go to school only yesterday since the incident. Meanwhile, the residents contended that the efforts of the NHA and the Government to destroy their lives will not stop them from rebuilding. “We have families too and we have rain drops of children to take care of.”

Housing vs squatting in Senate today

HOUSING MINISTER Dr Keith Rowley will square off against Opposition Senator Sadiq Baksh in the Upper House today at 1.30 pm on the current housing/squatting situation in Trinidad and Tobago today. Dr Rowley will be in the Senate today for the second reading of legislation to vest state lands in the National Housing Authority for a term of 999 years. This legislation was passed in the House of Representatives last December. Senate Opposition Leader Wade Mark told Newsday yesterday that Baksh has gotten leave from Senate President Dr Linda Baboolal to raise a motion on the Senate’s adjournment regarding the demolition of squatters’ homes at Cashew Gardens and is almost certain to refer to last week’s demolition of squatters homes at Wallerfield.

Rowley has publicly stated that Government does not view squatting as the solution to the nation’s housing problems and will enforce the law where this is concerned.  The Opposition UNC has condemned the recent demolitions as a callous act by the Government and claims it provides evidence of the ruling PNM trying to engage in house-padding to win future elections in TT. Government has repeatedly dismissed these longstanding UNC allegations. Rowley also has to answer questions from Mark pertaining to the IADB loan agreement and the National Settlements Programme.