Chester Sam­bra­no

Over 340 fam­i­lies are set to ben­e­fit from Home Im­prove­ment Grants from the Min­istry of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment in the weeks ahead.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Adri­an Leonce made the an­nounce­ment yes­ter­day at a cheque dis­tri­b­u­tion at the head of­fice of the min­istry.

Min­is­ter Leonce said: “In the last fis­cal year, the pro­gramme sup­port­ed 762 fam­i­lies with an ex­pen­di­ture of $11.43 mil­lion. For the cur­rent fis­cal year, $12 mil­lion has been al­lo­cat­ed, and we ex­pect to as­sist 800 fam­i­lies. The over­whelm­ing re­sponse, with over 1,500 new ap­pli­ca­tions, un­der­scores the pro­gramme's crit­i­cal need and pub­lic ap­pre­ci­a­tion.”

Dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, cheques were dis­trib­uted to 25 ben­e­fi­cia­ries who form part of a larg­er group of 342 re­cip­i­ents from North West Trinidad. 

These ben­e­fi­cia­ries hail from var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing Champs Fleur, San­ta Cruz, Laven­tille, Diego Mar­tin, Mor­vant, Trinci­ty, Bel­mont, Cas­cade, and Port of Spain. 

Min­is­ter Leonce praised their re­silience and spir­it, em­pha­siz­ing the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of the grants. 

Min­is­ter Leonce said that oth­er dis­tri­b­u­tion cer­e­monies for more Home Im­prove­ment Grants for oth­er parts of the coun­try will be an­nounced soon.

The pro­gramme pro­vides non-re­fund­able grants of $15,000 to low-in­come house­holds for es­sen­tial home re­pairs, im­prov­ing safe­ty, func­tion­al­i­ty, and aes­thet­ics.