Answers needed says Parish Land, St. Philip residents

Residents of Carpenter’s Glade, Parish Land, St. Philip have several questions they want answered by the National Housing Corporation (NHC) relating to the squatters from Rock Hall that will be relocated to the area.

They came together for a community meeting on Tuesday night to not only air their frustrations, to make queries, but to ask attorney-at-law, Michael Lashley, who was present, to provide legal advice as they seek to get the answers they need.

This meeting came several hours after Tuesday morning’s ceremony where Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance, Dr. William Duguid broke ground nearby in the same community where a road will be constructed. Twenty lots will be placed by the road. These will be available for housing as government starts its Relocation Programme for the residents at Rock Hall.

Among the questions voiced were, “How come the squatters are coming and Housing still hasn’t sent one word stating anything?” and “are the squatters paying for the land? Because I had to pay a hundred and somebody thousand dolllars.”

Most residents said they felt disrespected that no meeting was organised by NHC to inform them that government will be relocating individuals to their neighbourhood. They also queried whether some of the lots- 1A to 9A in the Carpenter’s Glade district were among those being given to the persons who were being relocated.

“There has been a groundbreaking in Parish Land in our neighbourhood and Housing management hasn’t had the decency to actually come up to us and say what is happening in our development. I think that is very much gross disrespect. They could have at least come over to us and say something,” stated Chairman of the Carpenter’s Glade Homeowners Association, Ian Drakes.

He added, “There are actually people living here now. It isn’t that there aren’t no residents, there are almost 100 residents up here with kids, there are our homes, there are our neighbourhood and we don’t want it to just bombard, because that is the word I could use, just because the government need to get the squatters move. You [are] going bring them to our neighbourhood without a decent word as a little Town Hall Meeting saying we are allocating lots, noting. The residents have talked tonight, and we will be taking matters. We are actually going to talk to NHC hoping that we get some answers before the week is out.”

Drakes also said the recent traversing of excavators, bobcats and trucks through the area have forced parents to keep their children indoor “and we think that Housing should have come to us the residents and actually say exactly what is going on in our area”.

He additionally said letters were written to the NHC to have their question answered but “they actually respond to us, but they didn’t actually respond to the queries that we put to them and we are actually still waiting on that”.

After listening to residents, one of the suggestions made by Lashley, who is a former Minister of Housing and Lands, was for a request to be made for an urgent meeting with seniors officials of NHC.

“I believe that if there is anything that impacts on a development under the National Housing Corporation that there should be some conduit of communication where a representative, [and] I understand there is a committee in place … that committee then should liaise with National Housing Corporation to get a full understanding of what is happening close to their houses. Now, I would suggest the move from here would be tonight have all signatures on some sort of document. I believe that we should have a computer or something in somebody house tonight, that we can draft something now everybody is out here, have it signed and ask for an immediate meeting with the representative at National Housing Corporation to air your views on this matter.” (MG)