Opposition MP critical of Government’s housing efforts

An Opposition Member of Parliament has taken issue with the Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, Denis Kellman’s presentation in the House of Assembly yesterday, suggesting that he failed to touch on the real issues of housing facing Barbadians at this time.

Member of Parliament for St. James Central, Kerrie Symmonds raised his concerns in the House of Assembly yesterday morning, as he contributed to the debate on the Crowns Lands (Vesting and Disposal) Act, Cap. 225 – Station Hill, St. Peter.

Following on the heels of Minister Kellman’s introduction to the debate, Symmonds also raised concern about the status of the housing project at Parish Land, St. Philip which he said up until a month ago was in a “state of desolation”, as well as the state of the rental income of the high-rise housing solution at Valerie, St. Michael which he lamented is in arrears. Symmonds further told the Lower House that the years that the Parish Land project has been at a standstill, has resulted in those houses needing extensive repair work being done on them.

“The State’s money, your money and mine Mr. Speaker; the money that your taxpayers in your constituency must pay and those in mine, that money has been squandered, because houses were built and then houses were allowed to fall into a state of waste and disrepair – windows broken out, tiles lifted off the ground where there was tiling on the ground,” he said.

Symmonds added, “That is what the taxpayers’ money is now doing up at Parish Land in St. Philip, doing over houses that have been completed for the last five years. The Minister of Housing is present, let him rise and say that I am not telling the truth.”

Additionally, he charged that Government was not meeting the needs of those requiring low income housing, contending that projects like the high-rise solutions at The Grotto and Valerie, were built at a cost of as much as $450 000 per unit.

“So understand the challenge that the National Housing Corporation has when it began a project under an understanding, and with an intent, that this was to provide shelter for low income people… So we have 22 000 applicants out there, this is the point I began on Sir, 22 000 Barbadians who are on a waiting list, waiting with bated breath for assistance from a Government which they elected... Lo and behold, those people are now confronted with a situation in which the housing that is available, is to become available to them at cost of just one half of a million dollars,” he said.

Adamant that no low income earners can afford such housing, he maintained that such realities have to be addressed. His comments came as he also spoke to challenges of collecting rent at Valerie. According to Symmonds, units at the St. Michael property are rented in the region of $700, and at the time of Estimates this year, more than 45 per cent of the tenants, were in arrears.

“If 45 per cent of the tenants are unable to meet $700 a month, then what steps are being taken in order to nurture these tenants through this process, so that the National Housing Corporation does not find itself faced with financial embarrassment?... What is the plan? Because it cannot be their fault, because when they applied for low income housing, Mr. Speaker Sir, they did not know that the Valerie was going to be built at a finished cost of $350 000 per unit; and they cannot by the roll of a dice transmogrify and transform their income to no longer be low income,” he stated. (JRT)