The former head of the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) Afra Raymond said State housing has effectively ruled out the poor from accessing shelter.
Speaking on Saturday night at the Penal Rotary Club handing over ceremony at a residence in Penal, Raymond questioned for whom the Chinese firm is constructing 5,000 houses.
He said each house was going to cost $1.15 million.
He said he enquired from T&T Mortgage Finance Company and was told “the best mortgage for a prime candidate” for someone borrowing $1 million is $5,000 per month.
“The way the rules work with mortgages to pay back $5,000 a month you have to have a salary of $18,000 a month, more than two times the average (household income in T&T) and you still have people in jacket and ties walking around in this country talking about they building affordable houses.”
In May, the HDC announced a partnership with a Chinese company, China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co Ltd (CGGC) to construct 5,000 apartment units at specific sites across Trinidad.
The first phase of the project is expected to produce 204 two and three-bedroom apartment units at South Quay, Port-of-Spain and 235 two and three-bedroom apartment units at Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando.
For this project, CGGC will be responsible for the financing, design, procurement and construction of the housing blocks and the associated infrastructure for these developments.
This first phase of the project, which will span two years, is estimated to cost US$71,739,411.00.
Raymond, who was delivering a “succinct an analysis of the housing policy,” recalled that 16 years ago, then prime minister Patrick Manning initiated the housing policy.
He proposed building 100,000 new affordable homes for low and middle-income families in a decade, which meant that 40 houses would have had to be built in a day.
However, he said when the government realised that this was not going to happen the housing policy disappeared.
He said neither the housing or land policies could be found on any official website.
While the Housing Development Corporation website speaks about no discrimination on the grounds of race, religious belief, political affliction or sexual orientation for applicants, he said poverty is not listed.
He said the HDC constructed only 15,299 homes in 16 years and that was a “record of tragic failure.”
Raymond said that the poorest people have not benefited. Noting that only 3,171 of those homes have been rented, he said 85 to 90 per cent of the people on the list cannot afford a mortgage while 70 to 85 per cent of the houses being built are for sale.
Describing himself as a housing specialist, he said it was possible to build houses at $475,000 and $450,000.
“What has trapped our public resources and the HDC and the housing ministry behind those high walls of a million dollars plus (houses).
“They are trapped up there, we need to rescue them,” said Raymond.