As Housing and Urban Development Minister Edmund Dillon remained resolute on the Housing Development Corporation’s (HDC) eviction of illegal occupants, one couple is now seeking shelter for themselves and their seven children. The eviction of Augustus Terrence, also known as Tony Smith, his wife Marsha Richards and children ages 10 months to 10 years, took place in Corinth Hills, Ste Madeleine, 30 minutes before Dillon, HDC chairman Newman George and San Fernando East MP Randall Mitchell arrived in the development to plant trees as part of the Corporation’s Green Key Initiative.
Dillon said that while squatting in HDC properties will not be tolerated, he hoped that the police will charge those illegal occupiers. While sympathy was expressed by neighbours of Richards and Terrence, Dillon said that allowing them to become legal occupants of the home was not an option. He said illegal occupants must move out and apply for housing using the proper process.
“We will not tolerate anyone moving into HDC properties without the necessary approval or without the necessary authority. This seems to be a pattern for persons, when they see a vacant house, believing it to be empty. Sometimes those houses have been allocated and for some reason, the occupants choose not to occupy it at that point in time. Therefore, we ensure that those who do so will be treated with a fistful brunt of the law because, in our exercises, we are accompanied by members of the Trinidad & Tobago Police Service who I believe will do the necessary in terms of charging individuals who are occupying these houses illegally,” Dillon said.
Terrence told Guardian Media that he went to work yesterday morning, leaving his wife and children in the house. An eviction crew broke down the door and immediately went inside and began moving their belongings into the yard of the townhouse unit. By the time he returned home, the eviction was done.
He said his brother, Jesus Amandes got permission to stay at the house from the original tenant and they moved in with him about 18 months ago. However, Amandes died last March and they continued living there.
He said HDC officials visited them a few times, advising them to move. It was then they began looking for a home to rent. But with employment hard to come by, they decided to get materials to build a house instead of paying rent.
He said he did work at Petrotrin before its closure and was supposed to collect back pay but it is outstanding. With limited finances, especially for a three-bedroom house for his family, they decided to move into the townhouse.
But illegal occupants are not the only ones who face eviction but those who fail to pay their rent. Dillon said the HDC has a debt collection department with a designated vehicle to transport personnel dealing with that issue and officials will be going into areas to serve notices to persons not paying their rent. He said if there is no action, the eviction will take place.