Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor–Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

For­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) sen­a­tor and Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer (PRO) Ronald Hug­gins has been ap­point­ed man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC), with the Gov­ern­ment dis­miss­ing con­cerns about his pre­vi­ous po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion and in­sist­ing his abil­i­ty to de­liv­er is what mat­ters.

The HDC an­nounced Hug­gins’ ap­point­ment in a pub­lic state­ment yes­ter­day, wel­com­ing him as its new man­ag­ing di­rec­tor and high­light­ing more than 20 years of se­nior lead­er­ship ex­pe­ri­ence across re­al es­tate, busi­ness and strate­gic man­age­ment.

The cor­po­ra­tion al­so specif­i­cal­ly not­ed his pre­vi­ous ser­vice as a gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor and di­rec­tor of TTT Ltd.

Par­lia­men­tary records show Hug­gins served un­der the for­mer PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion, ini­tial­ly on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions as a tem­po­rary gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor be­fore be­ing ap­point­ed a sen­a­tor in No­vem­ber 2017. He re­mained in the Up­per House un­til Sep­tem­ber 2018.

He al­so briefly served as the PNM’s PRO be­tween 2015-2016. He re­signed from the post for “per­son­al rea­sons.”

His ap­point­ment places a for­mer mem­ber of the PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion at the helm of one of the State’s ma­jor hous­ing agen­cies un­der the cur­rent Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Asked by Guardian Me­dia whether Hug­gins’ pre­vi­ous po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion was a con­sid­er­a­tion, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Alexan­der said it was not.

“This Prime Min­is­ter has demon­strat­ed on nu­mer­ous oc­ca­sions that abil­i­ties count more than most oth­er cri­te­ria, so his pre­vi­ous po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tions do not arise,” Alexan­der said.

“In my per­son­al view, any­one that can as­sist in de­liv­er­ing the mas­sive hous­ing tar­gets we have set is a wel­come ad­di­tion and from what I have heard Mr Hug­gins fits that bill.”

Alexan­der, the po­lit­i­cal leader of the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty, was ap­point­ed a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing fol­low­ing the UNC-led coali­tion’s vic­to­ry in the April 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Hug­gins takes over the HDC months af­ter for­mer man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Jay­selle Mc­Far­lane re­signed in Jan­u­ary.

Mc­Far­lane, who had spent al­most five years at the cor­po­ra­tion, ten­dered her res­ig­na­tion on Jan­u­ary 6, with her de­par­ture tak­ing ef­fect on Jan­u­ary 9. She told Guardian Me­dia at the time that she was leav­ing for per­son­al rea­sons.

Deputy man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Wazeer Aleem was sub­se­quent­ly ex­pect­ed to hold the po­si­tion un­til a suit­able suc­ces­sor was iden­ti­fied.

In an­nounc­ing his ap­point­ment, the HDC said Hug­gins holds a Mas­ter of Busi­ness Ad­min­is­tra­tion spe­cial­is­ing in Mar­ket­ing.

Hug­gins, mean­while, sig­nalled that ac­cel­er­at­ing hous­ing de­liv­ery will be among his pri­or­i­ties.

“It is an ho­n­our to join Team HDC as we ad­vance our core man­date to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

He said the cor­po­ra­tion would work with “pur­pose, ur­gency and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment” to de­liv­er homes, build com­mu­ni­ties and ex­pand op­por­tu­ni­ties.

His ap­point­ment comes as the Gov­ern­ment faces pres­sure to make good on am­bi­tious hous­ing com­mit­ments made ahead of the 2025 elec­tion.

The ap­point­ment al­so comes as the HDC is ex­pect­ed to play a cen­tral role in de­liv­er­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s hous­ing pro­gramme, with the Min­istry of Hous­ing tar­get­ing the con­struc­tion of 20,000 new homes be­fore the end of the Gov­ern­ment’s term in of­fice.

Alexan­der has pre­vi­ous­ly de­scribed the tar­get as part of the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s push to sig­nif­i­cant­ly ex­pand the coun­try’s hous­ing stock and re­duce the long­stand­ing de­mand for State hous­ing.