RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Even as she again con­demned squat­ting as il­le­gal, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is yes­ter­day an­nounced that the Gov­ern­ment will con­struct 500 homes for squat­ters oc­cu­py­ing both State and pri­vate lands.

Speak­ing at a key dis­tri­b­u­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the San Fer­nan­do City Hall au­di­to­ri­um, Robin­son-Reg­is, who last week said Gov­ern­ment will not tol­er­ate squat­ters as she ad­dressed a sit­u­a­tion in La Hor­quet­ta where il­le­gal homes were de­mol­ished, said the ben­e­fi­cia­ries will in­clude res­i­dents un­der the Land Set­tle­ment Agency’s (LSA) Squat­ter Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion Pro­gramme and those liv­ing on pri­vate lands who meet the LSA’s Home Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme cri­te­ria.

Cog­nisant of the plight of squat­ters in the low-in­come brack­et, Robin­son-Reg­is said the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion dri­ve will con­tin­ue.

“For fis­cal 2025, we have set a tar­get of build­ing 500 new res­i­den­tial units. This un­der­scores our com­mit­ment to ad­dress­ing hous­ing needs across the coun­try,” Robin­son-Reg­is said.

She not­ed that con­struc­tion was un­der­way on 76 units, with con­tracts signed for an­oth­er 126 units which are ex­pect­ed to be­gin soon. The pro­ject­ed cost of these units is $113,472,320.”

The keys to 50 units were yes­ter­day dis­trib­uted to ben­e­fi­cia­ries in Ch­agua­nas, Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro, Ma­yaro, Princes Town, San Fer­nan­do, and Siparia, she said.

In the com­ing weeks, the Min­is­ter re­vealed an­oth­er 48 units will be al­lo­cat­ed to res­i­dents in Ari­ma, Diego Mar­tin, San Juan/Laven­tille, San­gre Grande, and Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co.

She re­it­er­at­ed, how­ev­er, that peo­ple who squat were break­ing the law.

“The Gov­ern­ment can­not al­low the il­le­gal oc­cu­pa­tion to per­sist. Land own­er­ship is not a guess­ing game—whether state or pri­vate­ly owned, squat­ting is un­law­ful,” she said.

Ad­dress­ing re­cent pub­lic con­cerns about squat­ting, Robin­son-Reg­is said, “The Gov­ern­ment has nev­er ig­nored the is­sue of squat­ting. We have ap­proached it with struc­tured poli­cies and long-term so­lu­tions, not tem­po­rary po­lit­i­cal fix­es.”

She point­ed out that the LSA, es­tab­lished un­der the State Land (Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of Tenure) Act of 1998, has been in­stru­men­tal in man­ag­ing squat­ter set­tle­ments and pro­vid­ing le­gal av­enues for land and hous­ing ac­cess.

“There are those spread­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion, but the LSA has been work­ing on the ground to reg­u­larise squat­ter set­tle­ments and pro­vide leas­es to el­i­gi­ble fam­i­lies. Res­i­dents of ar­eas like Pine Set­tle­ment, Windy Hill, and Cashew Gar­dens have ben­e­fit­ed from es­sen­tial ser­vices such as potable wa­ter, prop­er roads, drainage, elec­tric­i­ty, and san­i­ta­tion,” she ex­plained.

She al­so spoke about the im­pact of squat­ting on the en­vi­ron­ment.

“It dis­rupts ur­ban plan­ning, strains util­i­ties, and en­croach­es on vi­tal lands,” Robin­son-Reg­is re­vealed.

Be­yond hous­ing, Robin­son-Reg­is said the Gov­ern­ment was rolling out 55 in­fra­struc­ture de­vel­op­ment projects this fis­cal year, with an es­ti­mat­ed in­vest­ment of $54,447,000.

“These projects will fo­cus on road­works, drainage, and se­cu­ri­ty en­hance­ments in ar­eas in­clud­ing Ari­ma, Cara­po, Waller­field, Moru­ga, En­ter­prise, Mor­vant, Point Fortin, Cap de Ville, Todd’s Road, In­di­an Walk, and Bon Air North,” Robin­son-Reg­is said.

Al­so ad­dress­ing the gath­er­ing, LSA chair­man Al­lan Meiguel said the vil­lage-based self-help ap­proach utilised in the Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme (HVIP) will not on­ly im­prove hous­ing but al­so strength­en com­mu­ni­ty bonds.

Re­cent­ly, Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands Paula Drakes re­vealed that unau­tho­rised de­vel­op­ments have en­croached up­on 50 to 60 per cent of for­est re­serves in north and cen­tral Trinidad.

LSA chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Haz­ar Ho­sein al­so dis­closed that a re­cent sur­vey of the Va­len­cia and Long Stretch for­est re­serves un­cov­ered over 5,000 squat­ter struc­tures on just 4,000 acres—one-third of the re­serves in that area. He said the agency planned to sur­vey the re­main­ing 8,000 acres soon.

Man­ning: We will

find fund­ing

Speak­ing af­ter the event, Robin­son-Reg­is’ col­league, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Bri­an Man­ning, said Gov­ern­ment was com­mit­ted to fund­ing the hous­ing dri­ve.

“To ben­e­fit the peo­ple of T&T, we will find the fund­ing. It is some­thing that needs to be done.”

He said the de­mand for hous­ing was great in his con­stituen­cy.

“If I see 100 peo­ple in of­fice, 80 of them are there about hous­ing. We un­der­stand how im­por­tant hous­ing is for peo­ple and we will find the mon­ey,” he added.

Com­ment­ing on the pro­lif­er­a­tion of squat­ter com­mu­ni­ties, Man­ning said the HVIP will tar­get ar­eas across the coun­try.

“Every squat­ting area will be tar­get­ed un­der the HVIP pro­gramme. We have to reg­u­larise the com­mu­ni­ties, and that is for the safe­ty of the peo­ple who are oc­cu­py­ing the hous­es go­ing for­ward,” he said.

He re­ferred to de­vel­op­ments in his con­stituen­cy since he as­sumed of­fice, stat­ing, “When I came to of­fice, there were many squat­ter com­mu­ni­ties along the St Madeleine train line and the cir­cu­lar in Pleas­antville.

“Now, some of these ar­eas are ful­ly de­vel­oped, and I am hap­py they now have a place to call home.”

He said the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the HPIV do not have to pay for their homes, which are built at a cost of $200,000.