Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development and Member of Parliament for St. James South, Donville Inniss.
A Government minister, while lauding the National Housing Corporation (NHC) for executing its mandate with limited resources, is urging the state-run entity to do its best to complete the transfers of the housing units to tenants who qualify for ownership.
Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development and Member of Parliament for St. James South, Donville Inniss, in a recent interview with The Barbados Advocate, noted that over 200 tenants, out of the 325 in the Haynesville Housing Area, located in his St. James South Constituency, have qualified under the Government’s 20-Year Programme.
“Back in 2008 we devised a policy that if you resided in the units for 20 years or more and your rent was paid up, the unit should be transferred to you. We felt that once you resided for more than 20 years that was like a mortgage and we would relieve ourselves of that property and provide economic empowerment to those families…In Haynesville that accounts for 230 tenants who have not had to pay any rent for more than five years, but the process of conveying those units has not been going as fast as we would all like,” he said.
He added, “But my advice to the NHC would be to get the title deeds to the qualifying tenants as fast as possible so they can have full and firm ownership of the properties.”
Inniss’ comments came as he acknowledged that the delays have in part been due to the Corporation having to carry out surveys of the properties and undertaking "some engineering work". He made the point as he explained that the electrical issues being experienced in some units have not been the only challenge.
“Because the units make up several blocks of buildings, we also have to look at the sewage systems for example, and these are things being addressed by National Housing. I am one who is actually prepared to commend the National Housing Corporation for the work they have been providing not only in Haynesville, but all the housing estates with the limited resources they have had over the years, and this is nothing new. And in fact, some of the challenges people talk about today, people would have talked about 20 years ago,” he said.
Meanwhile, reflecting on a fire that occurred in Haynesville on Boxing Day, the St. James South MP said the NHC has started to do its assessment of the three damaged units and are expected to begin remedial work, possibly as early as this week. His comments came as he chided those who he suggested were “playing politics” with that situation.
“When we are talking about fires and other unfortunate incidents, I am mindful that we are talking about families that are dislocated and calling in the media and doing things on social media do not help the families that are affected,” he said. (JRT)