Rowley warns of illegal additions to NHA houses

Housing Minister Keith Rowley has blamed poor parenting for the deterioration of most of the National Housing Authorities’ (NHA) housing developments. “An absence of this family support system, especially in urbanised developments, contributes to the series of problems the Government now has to solve,” he added, as he gave the feature address at the opening of the Barataria Housing Development yesterday. Rowley also warned the residents of the new 82-unit development that the NHA was not going to tolerate any new additions to the projects. “We will not hesitate to exercise the NHA’s authority to ensure that other residents are protected,” he said, “so do not come to my office when the NHA takes action when you do that sort of foolishness.”

Rowley added that contrary to the public’s belief, the NHA was not “giving out” houses. He said the houses will either be sold or rented to a selected number of persons. He gave his assurance that the selection was not based on “people who know people in the NHA,” but on a computerised random selection. He explained that in circumstances where there were persons with disabilities, he, as Minister, had a ten percent say in how fast that person would receive a home. He said he expected to take the Bill that would reconstruct the NHA into a housing development corporation to Parliament very soon. This reconstruction, he added, will transform the NHA into a service industry.