The Land Settlement Agency (LSA) is being restructured to revive four initiatives that were abandoned by the former Patrick Manning administration in 2003 and reintroduced last month by the People's Partnership government. But it is a monumental task with an inadequate budget of $18 million annually, said the LSA's chief executive officer Dr Allen Sammy. In an interview, he identified the initiatives as:
• Land for the Landless Programme
• Regularisation of tenancies on State lands in particular areas
• Creation of community councils
• Introduction of microenterprises
In essence, the agency would be granted responsibility for the new units of tenure regularisation, community development, containment, infrastructure development and cooperative services. The new objectives and organisational structure of the LSA got the green light last month from the Ministry of Planning and the Economy.
Some of these units, Sammy said, were amalgamations of previous departments. Describing the transformation as "an institutional strengthening exercise," he said, "what is important with the fieldwork is the linkage with the legal part of the LSA, which is to grant the certificates of comfort. We want to establish a smooth and seamless transfer in terms of gathering information, processing information and taking it to a point where documents could actually be granted."
He said in 2003, Cabinet made several amendments to the LSA Act 25 of 1998, and the principal decision was that the aims of the organisation should be reduced to two key components: regularisation of squatters and the containment or prevention of new squatting.
"What they effectively removed would have been the Land for the Landless Programme and the regularisation of State leases in particular lands, as well as the development of community councils and microenterprise," Sammy said. He said in addition, the size of the agency was reduced from 217 to 68 employees, all of whom are contracted, including drivers and cleaners.
The four initiatives, he added, were not only integral to providing homes but also to create a way of life to empower people. "There was purpose in the first place for those four components. You don't only want to leave a legacy of physical infrastructure...you don't only want to fix roads and drains, but you want people to have a voice, through community councils, whether they would be taught how to govern their own sites, how to liaise with external agencies, how to seek the State's goods and services, including garbage collection, post office delivery and community development programmes."
Also introduced last month was the early emergency works programme at squatter sites, which will incorporate building new roads and providing pipe-borne water and electricity. "These are works that do not take long...maybe three months for the most. It is really an emergency programme meant to help 15 to 20 people in the respective communities.
What is Land for the Landless?
The Land for the Landless Programme has been hailed by the LSA as a major component in poverty reduction.
Who will qualify and how will the land be allocated?
Sammy said the programme was targeting low-income people who could not purchase land on their own. "We would set out criteria for people to be beneficiaries of the programme. There are also legal steps: a declaration of landlessness must be done. "The LSA also does actual checks. We go where these people live. It's not a hit-and-miss way of doing it, it is a structured way."
Once identified as needy, a proposed 5,000-square-foot lot would be earmarked for each family. These areas would be greenfield sites, where no one has lived before, or squatter sites with available lots. With support from the State, including building grants, families could then construct their homes.
"These grants are not meant to build a house. It is a start, because it would be capitalising on people's ability to do things for themselves, and, more importantly, they would build their own home and not complain they got a house that it is 'mashing up'," Sammy said. Another aspect would be creating space at the back of the homes to grow crops.
The LSA Act is expected to be amended next year and one proposed change is to reduce the 5,000 square feet allocation to 3,500. "We are saying 5,000 square feet is unsustainable. As land is limited. We want to maximise the land and put more families on the land, but at the same time recognising the need for outside space.
"We are proposing the right to have medium-rise dwellings, which again would be done by the people." Sammy said the ultimate goal was to transform squatter sites into dignified living spaces. "At the end of the day, you wouldn't want a site to be known as a squatter site. You must be able to drive through and not know those people were squatters, because they have now been integrated into the mainstream by also becoming producers through microenterprises.
"They no longer have to feel helpless." Another proposal under the amended Act included more authority by the LSA for containment. "We want more authority to prevent squatting. We want more authority with other agencies to address issues of approvals and the granting of tenure," Sammy added.
Urging people not to squat, he said the problem was difficult to clamp down on. "In spite of the good work you are doing, you can't stop squatting. "While Land for the Landless is being developed, people must realise they can't squat. They have to wait like everybody else..Your turn will come like anybody else."
Squatter sites
In 1998, 251 squatting sites were identified on State lands in Trinidad of varying ages, sizes and locations. Sammy said the squatting population exploded in 2003, leaving the housing policy ineffective to match the demands for space for housing. "When the provisions of the act were changed in 2003 by Cabinet, what it did was build houses for new people coming into the system. But they could not keep up.
"As a consequence, more people went to squat on the existing sites and created new sites, many of which are environmentally sensitive, including forest reserves and river banks, or in the pathway of proposed construction, including highways," Sammy said.
At present there are 38,742 squatting structures in Trinidad, containing an average of five to seven people in one house. "We have identified 20 squatting sites on State lands between the Lady Young Road and Carenage and we have had problems collecting social data in those areas," Sammy said.
For various reasons, people squatting in those particular areas have refused to give information to various State agencies including the Central Statistical Office (CSO), Sammy explained.
Who are the landless?- Rowley
Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley, a former housing minister, is asking the LSA to identify landless people and ensure land is transparently distributed. If not properly developed and executed, the Land for the Landless Programme could mirror the 1980s Sou Sou Lands concept produced by former Minister of Housing and Settlement John Humphrey, which eventually fell through the cracks.
"We need to ask ourselves who are really the landless people in Trinidad and Tobago? "And if we are giving them a plot of land, how do we ensure they would not be creating slums?" Rowley questioned.
Not as simple as giving land-sociologist
While the Land for the Landless Programme is a welcome initiative, it must be properly implemented and the aim must include poverty reduction, said Dr Ronald Marshall, coordinator and senior lecturer in sociology at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. It is estimated between ten and 12 per cent of the population live below the poverty line, earning US$1 a day, Marshall added. He said the key to reducing poverty was getting rid of the dependency syndrome.
"While the Land for the Landless Programme is welcome, the issue of how it can really reduce poverty must be (more closely) examined, because poverty is also linked to many social ills, including crime. "The programme is good, given the exorbitant price of land and the process of land ownership. This is a daunting challenge for many landless people," Marshall added.
He said the Government must also take a clear position, "not by words but by deeds," that there was a clear link between housing and agriculture. "There is a need to shelter people, but at the same time we must be serious about reducing the food bill. There must be a clear demographic analysis of those lands not suitable for low-income people and which can be used for agriculture.
"And if land is given, make people aware that to plant food means reducing the food bill." Squatters have also been more aware of their rights than before and the Government has been facing "militant opposition" from some, Marshall added. "These groups are very assertive of their rights and are even prepared to go to court for settlement."--
ABOUT THE LSA
What is the Land Settlement Agency?
The Land Settlement Agency was established by Act of Parliament No 25 of 1998. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Housing and the Environment and commenced formal operations in 1999 and its mandate is to protect squatters from being ejected from State lands; to facilitate the acquisition of leasehold titles by both squatters and tenants in designated areas and to provide for the establishment of land settlement areas.