Lee to investigate Corinth town house squatters

Housing Minister David Lee. - File photo by Angelo Marcelle

HOUSING Minister David Lee says he needs to find out the facts surrounding a situation where a family who paid down for a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) home in Corinth, discovered strangers in the property and preparing to move in, weeks before they got the keys.

The couple, who have children and asked not to be identified, made a police report on December 29 after they were alerted that people were inside their HDC town house at Riverside South, Corinth, near San Fernando.

On December 31, Lee said, "Now reading this and will have to investigate this matter via HDC."

In a statement later in the day, former housing minister Camille Robinson-Regis claimed after the April 28 general election, a decision was taken by the HDC to "regularise squatters currently occupying HDC properties without permission."

She said this is a situation where people have illegally occupied state housing and in many instances, forced legitimate tennants to be removed from units which legitimately belong to them.

"This screams of laziness and the government, through the HDC, is trying to take a shortcut to address a pressing issue."

Robinson-Regis questioned how government can condemn lawlessness on one hand and regularise it on the other.

She said this is relevant in the context of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's recent claim that TT "is a lawless dump" when she (Persad-Bissessar) defended government's decision to increase fines for traffic offences.

Robinson-Regis recalled last year, Oropouche East MP (now Energy Minister) Dr Roodal Moonilal called on the HDC to stop evictions because he claimed the people being evicted were political targets of the PNM.

Moonilal was housing minister in Persad-Bissessar's first administration (May 24, 2010 - September 7, 2015).

Robinson-Regis asked if there was ministerial oversight over what is happening at HDC

"Housing policy must be grounded in fairness, transparency and respect for the rule of law. "

Robinson-Regis said the UNC needs to explain "how regularising squatting aligns with its rhetoric on lawlessness."