Rowley turns sod at housing venues in South

HOUSING Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday turned the sod at four rural locations in South Trinidad for the construction of houses by the National Housing Authority (NHA). The four rural areas to be transformed into new housing communities are; Harmony Hall Estate, Gasparillo; Wellington Road, Debe; Golconda Estate; and Pleasantville. At the sod-turning in Debe, Rowley said the land on which the houses would be built belonged to the former Caroni (1975) Ltd.

The Housing Minister said lands barely suitable for cane production would be used for housing development and industrial purposes. Rowley said, “Those marginal areas barely suitable for cane production would be taken out of cane production for the development of housing communities and industrial purposes.” Stating there was a housing shortage in the country, Rowley said there were over 70,000 applicants vying for NHA housing units. The majority, he added, are from the East-West corridor and South Trinidad.

Rowley said government would build 100,000 affordable housing units over a ten-year period.  “The government’s due is to create home ownership as far as possible and as affordable as it can possibly be, with a number of facilities being put in place for persons to easily access their NHA housing family units,” Rowley said. At the Wellington Road site, 70 acres of land have been allocated for the construction of housing units. Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, who turned the sod with Rowley , said that NHA housing distribution must be done fairly, equally and with transparency.