BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THOSE individuals, who are officially earmarked to be owners of new government-built houses and were promised that they would have begun occupying them from this week, will now have to wait until a further date is announced.
Last week, the Minister with Responsibility for Housing, the Hon. Eugene Hamilton, had announced that within this week and the following one, the Government of National Unity would have been distributing 84 houses within certain villages in St. Kitts.
“We will be distributing 84 units. Nineteen will be in Lodge, Ottley’s; 27 will be at Green Acres in Half Way Tree; 28 will be at Pine Gardens; I think six at Buckley’s; and another six at Taylor’s Village.”
The distribution process was however hampered due to a number of factors, including vandalism, as explained by the Minister during an interview with Winn FM yesterday (Apr. 27).
The Housing Minister said they were satisfied that the houses were near completion but “because as we speak I understand that at least some attempt by forces unknown to vandalise in the last two or three days. I think five or six of the houses have been broken into and I understand that some items have been removed. It requires providing good security as we lead into distributing them”.
Apart from vandalism, Hamilton pointed out that infrastructure was another factor that affected completion of the houses.
“One of the things that also delayed it was the time taken for there to be infrastructure, particularly electricity attached to one of the houses. I think it was only last week two of the areas were completed and, if I am not mistaken, one of the areas is still incomplete.”
He explained that a decision was taken for people to start occupying the houses from this week but in addition to the above mentioned reasons, the delay was caused by some other internal factors.
“The schedule was to distribute some this week and some next week, but some other internal discussions were important in arriving at the appropriate time. One of them still links to the infrastructure and so we didn’t want to be distributing houses and persons can’t move into their house.”
He declared that a date has not yet been set for occupation but promised it may be done sometime next month.
The Housing Minister however made reference to the state of affair the Government of National Unity met when it took office in February last year.
“When we came to office the funding mechanism to complete the houses was not in place and we had to source funding to complete them. That took a little while because as you would imagine at that point we were making sure that every dot and T is crossed so that whatever we do can be properly accounted for. And so that took some time, certainly at a period where nothing was budgeted for it.
He also indicated to the media house that the Government had anticipated using funds from the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation, but they could not because it is currently under review.
