Tewarie: Chaguanas family housing plea not new

MP for Caroni Central Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie said the problems faced by a Chaguanas family of four predated covid 19 issues by years.

"This family has an issue of housing and electricity which they have been experiencing for the past ten years."

The issue of water supply, Tewarie said, can be dealt with from his office.

Anthony Grant, 54, lives with his common-law wife Anna Hosein, 51, and their two sons, 17 and 12, at Tanager Drive in Edinburgh 500 Chaguanas. The family lives in darkness, having no electricity and without a pipe-borne water supply. The family's story was carried in Newsday on Monday, after which members of the public offered to help with food supplies.

Grant, who works as a labourer with the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation, said he can afford food for his family. He sought help from Social Welfare Department and Housing Development Corporation (HDC) in the hope of getting a better place to live with his children.

"I am employed and I can afford to pay, but I cannot access a home even though I applied," he said. On Tuesday he made another appeal for assistance from HDC in securing a home for his wife and two children.

The home they currently occupy is not wired for electricity and there is no connection from Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) lines.

Grant said their problems took a turn for the worse when the government imposed the stay-at-home orders since the offices are currently closed.

"I have nowhere to go with my family and I am under threat from the owners of the property that I called home for ten years," he said.

Calls and a WhatsApp message to Minister of Housing Edmund Dillon went unanswered.