THA pays out $20m in house grants

Approximately $20 million has been paid in home improvement and home subsidy grants to more than 1,300 families in the past four years by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Settlements and Labour Secretary Whitney Alfred revealed on Monday.<!--break-->

He said the THA was considering two others, a home completion grant and a non-repayable new home grant.  Alfred explained the home completion grant would be for people who had been unable to complete their homes, while the new home grant would be to assist people who own residential lots to build their own homes.  He said a joint income of between $24,000 and $40,000 a year would qualify people to receive the $25,000 new home grant, while a joint income of between $40,000 and $60,000 a year would be the qualification to receive $35,000 in grant funds.Alfred was speaking at the handing-over of cheques to 19 families to improve their homes.

He said the money must be used for home improvement and inspectors from his division would visit the properties to ensure that was done. Joint income must not be more than $5,000 a month to qualify for the $15,000 home improvement grant, while the joint income must not be more than $7,500 a month to receive the home subsidy grant. He also said the assembly would begin distributing new houses from next week.

The first such distribution will be at Blenheim on December 13, followed by Castara on December 15 and Adventure in Plymouth on December 17. Alfred said the THA alone could not provide houses to meet the demand and intended to join with Habitat for Humanity to build affordable houses for Tobagonians.