Mitchell: Illegal occupiers will not be regularised

The warning came from Housing Minister Randall Mitchell in response to queries about two more families being removed from buildings in Harmony Hall, Gasparillo yesterday afternoon.

Their eviction comes two months after some 25 families were removed on March 20 for illegally occupying buildings which were condemned in 2013.

Yesterday, the families complained to Newsday that they had applied for HDC housing - some claimed over ten years ago - and grew tired of waiting. They asked that HDC process their applications as they are willing to pay rents or mortgages.

“HDC’s position on those matters is that unlawful occupiers will not be regularised,” said Mitchell.

“To do that would be to reward someone for their wrongdoing and to encourage further wrongdoing by others seeking to skip all other applicants in getting allocated to an affordable housing unit.” Some of the families who were removed from the Harmony Hall buildings in March continued to live outside the buildings, sneaking back into open apartments at night to escape the elements. The HDC responded by blocking up the windows, doorways and staircases with concrete bricks.

The barricading was completed yesterday around the same time workers emptied two other apartments of peoples belongings.

HDC Corporate Communications Manager Maurisa Findlay yesterday said the corporation’s drive to remove illegal occupants from HDC units, so they can be remediated and allocated to qualified tenants, will continue throughout the country.

Meanwhile, without access to the apartments to shelter at night, the families removed by the corporation in March, including approximately 16 children, prepared to sleep under the moonlight last night.