General lawlessness in TT hampering NHA

“The biggest threat to the National Housing Programme is the general lawlessness that pervades Trinidad and Tobago!” Those were the telling words of Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday, while delivering the feature address at the formal presentation of keys to “The Oasis Site C” homeowners, the newest NHA (National Housing Authority) housing development in River Estate, Diego Martin. Rowley explained that there were squatters in a number of areas around the country, and cited specifically those of Wallerfield, who recently took the Government to court. He said that having sued the NHA wrongfully, they withdrew the matter in the High Court which resulted in the State being awarded costs. But in reality, he said, the State would never see a cent of that award after having paid a tidy sum of taxpayers’ money to fight the suit.

“Those same people are now going to sue the LSA, another State agency, which would mean another hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers, being incurred by people breaking the law, encouraged by parliamentarians and other people. “The biggest threat to Trinidad and Tobago becoming a developed country by year 2020 is not the ability for our people to execute, it is the general lawlessness that pervades the country. Even in the very Parliament, when members of Parliament stand on their feet and challenge the speaker and tell the speaker to go to hell,” said Rowley. He added that the same money used to fight such wrongful matters in court could be spent on developing other housing projects for law-abiding citizens in dire need of homes.

The minister also warned that current homeowners who are delinquent in the payment of their rents/mortgages, would be dealt with accordingly. He said when he last checked NHA files he discovered that defaulters owed some $200 million to NHA. He said: “That is unacceptable and it will not be allowed. Poverty is no excuse to disobey the law.” When questioned later, Rowley couldn’t give any details about how the monies will be collected, but hinted that the law will have to be applied, especially where contracts were entered into. The Oasis Housing Project shot into the news a few years ago when construction was stopped by a sub-contractor of the NHA. The intended owners then demanded that something be done after having already made downpayments for their units.

Eventually, as the current Government regained power, and in an effort to satisfy the aggrieved homeowners, they mandated the NHA to hire new contractors to get the job done. The result is that the cost of this particular project has fallen well in excess of the original cost of the units. Rowley indicated yesterday that the project was the most expensive one to date, but that the cost of units from now on will not be a burden on the treasury. He told the new homeowners that they got a bargain in a big way, courtesy the people of TT. Each of the Oasis units cost the owner $210,000 and another $45,000 which was subsidised by the NHA. Twenty-four three-bedroom units were given out yesterday.

Given that 66 percent of the applications for houses fall in the East/West Corridor, plus the problem of land space, Rowley stated that the NHA will now be working with architects to come up with new designs to maximise the use of land and to keep the cost of units down which could mean more two, three and four storey buildings. Other speakers at the event were NHA’s executive director Noel Garcia, MP for Diego Martin East Colm Imbert and Unit recipient, Yoko Powder.