kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
With delinquent tenants’ arrears climbing to $157 million, Housing Development Corporation (HDC) chairman Noel Garcia says management may now have to take severe actions, which could include evictions.
The arrears are approximately $6 million more than what the HDC quoted last July, when Housing and Urban Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis blamed delinquent tenants as one of the reasons for the corporation’s failure to meet an outstanding $1.3 billion payment to contractors.
In an interview at the HDC’s first key distribution ceremony at Riverside East, Ste Madeleine, yesterday, Garcia said the HDC will now assemble a special task force to deal with delinquent tenants. The task force will embark on a campaign beginning next month to get these tenants to pay their arrears. It starts with a virtual meeting with Oasis Greens, where some renters and rent-to-own tenants owe $3.4 million, he said.
The HDC highlighted Oasis Greens on Tuesday, after the media reported the residents’ complaints that the corporation was not attending to their problems. Garcia said over 75 per cent of tenants there are in arrears.
The HDC will then move to Cypress Hill, San Fernando; Edinburgh 500, Chaguanas; Heron Court, Malabar and others. It will also issue follow-up letters inviting renters to visit their offices.
Garcia said the HDC has approximately 10,000 tenants paying rent, and 55 per cent were in arrears, including some whose fees are as low as $100 per month. Some with Licence-to-Own contracts are also in arrears.
He said the days of people getting HDC houses and reneging on their obligation to pay are over.
“We are going to embark on the campaign. We are not going to be heartless, but we are going to have to make some very hard decisions, which may entail evictions. As I said, we will do it on a case-by-case basis,” Garcia said.
The Government subsidises the cost of HDC houses and the surrounding infrastructure. Garcia said when people buy a unit, they do not pay for the new roads, drains and land. Some rental fees are between $800 and $1,500 per month, while the market rate for similar properties is between $3,000 and $5,000, he noted.
Garcia said HDC has approximately 191,000 applicants on its database, while some fortunate to get a unit refuse to pay.
“The Minister of Finance complains, bitterly, that Government is putting out billions of dollars and is not seeing the returns,” Garcia said.
Also addressing the gathering, Minister in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Adrian Leonce said that as happy as some families were to receive their keys yesterday, Government wants the same for other families.
He relayed a story of meeting someone who collected their keys but never paid rent.
“They said, ‘Thank you. Government give me a house. It is what I voted for.’ I just want to tell you and the rest of the nation that you have access to subsidised housing, but at a cost,” Leonce said.
The HDC stands to collect $48 million from 100 units at Riverside East, which will fund future housing developments.
Leonce said the HDC allocated just under 4,000 units from 2018-2022 and projects to deliver 5,000 this fiscal year. It has also resumed work on all stalled housing projects, he said.
HDC managing director Jayselle McFarlane also appealed to delinquent tenants to begin or resume their payments by paying their mortgages and rent. She said the HDC had introduced a suite of payment methods that are accessible, convenient, simple and reliable for all.
Courts also partnered with the HDC and staged two model units for homeowners to consider their options. One lucky recipient walked away with a $15,000 shopping spree, while two others won 50-inch televisions at the ceremony.
