Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Trinci­ty/Mal­oney Camille Robin­son-Reg­is has crit­i­cised what she de­scribed as a move by the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) to reg­u­larise squat­ters who have il­le­gal­ly oc­cu­pied state-fund­ed hous­ing units, call­ing it a con­tra­dic­tion of the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion on law­less­ness.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued on Tues­day night, Robin­son-Reg­is said the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress ad­min­is­tra­tion had shown “po­lit­i­cal hypocrisy” by sup­port­ing or al­low­ing a process that would reg­u­larise il­le­gal oc­cu­pa­tion of HDC prop­er­ties.

She re­ferred to com­ments by HDC chair­man Feeroz Khan, who said the cor­po­ra­tion in­tend­ed to reg­u­larise squat­ters cur­rent­ly oc­cu­py­ing HDC units with­out au­tho­ri­sa­tion.

Robin­son-Reg­is said the move con­flict­ed with re­cent re­marks by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that Trinidad and To­ba­go had be­come “a law­less dump”.

Ac­cord­ing to Robin­son-Reg­is, in­di­vid­u­als oc­cu­py­ing the units did so un­law­ful­ly and, in some cas­es, re­moved ten­ants who were law­ful­ly al­lo­cat­ed the homes.

She said the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion amount­ed to re­ward­ing un­law­ful be­hav­iour while many ap­pli­cants re­mained on the HDC wait­ing list.

She al­so point­ed to re­marks by Khan, who said re­mov­ing oc­cu­pants could in­volve “a lengthy process”, sug­gest­ing the ap­proach re­flect­ed what she de­scribed as a short­cut to deal­ing with il­le­gal oc­cu­pa­tion rather than en­forc­ing the law.

Robin­son-Reg­is said the is­sue fol­lowed a pat­tern in the UNC’s ap­proach to hous­ing pol­i­cy.

She re­called that late last year, UNC deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Roodal Mooni­lal called on the HDC to halt evic­tions, ar­gu­ing that en­force­ment ac­tion against delin­quent home­own­ers and ten­ants was po­lit­i­cal­ly mo­ti­vat­ed.

She al­so ref­er­enced a let­ter writ­ten ear­li­er this year by for­mer UNC hous­ing min­is­ter John Humphrey to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, in which he urged the Pres­i­dent to use her “moral au­thor­i­ty” to en­cour­age the pro­vi­sion of state land to peo­ple in need of hous­ing.

Robin­son-Reg­is fur­ther cit­ed com­ments by for­mer UNC MP Rush­ton Paray, who crit­i­cised the for­mer gov­ern­ment for what he de­scribed as a fail­ure to ad­dress squat­ting.

In her state­ment, Robin­son-Reg­is ques­tioned whether hous­ing pol­i­cy was now pri­ori­tis­ing those who break the law, while law-abid­ing cit­i­zens con­tin­ued to wait for hous­ing al­lo­ca­tion.

She al­so raised con­cerns about gov­er­nance and over­sight with­in the hous­ing sec­tor, re­fer­ring to com­ments made by Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee.

Lee said he was un­aware of any pol­i­cy to reg­u­larise squat­ters and in­di­cat­ed that the mat­ter had not been dis­cussed with him or oth­er min­is­ters.

He al­so said that any such pol­i­cy would first re­quire Cab­i­net ap­proval.

Min­is­ter Lee said a meet­ing with the HDC’s Board is sched­uled for to­mor­row.

But Robin­son-Reg­is said the min­is­ter’s com­ments raised ques­tions about who was di­rect­ing hous­ing pol­i­cy and whether de­ci­sions were be­ing tak­en with­out min­is­te­r­i­al ap­proval or ac­count­abil­i­ty.

She called on the Gov­ern­ment to ex­plain how reg­u­lar­is­ing il­le­gal squat­ting aligned with its pub­lic po­si­tion on law­less­ness and said hous­ing pol­i­cy should be based on fair­ness, trans­paren­cy and re­spect for the rule of law.