Housing Minister tours HDC work sites for 1,500 homes

Minister of Housing and Urban Development Pennelope Beckles visited several Housing Development Corporation (HDC) sites on Monday which are expected to yield approximately 1,445 residential lots for construction.

Beckles was accompanied by Minister in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Adrian Leonce and later joined by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi in his San Fernando West constituency.

A statement released by the ministry on Monday said the ministers braved Monday’s inclement weather to check the progress of work under the remit of the HDC and the Land Settlement Agency (LSA) in central, south, and east Trinidad.

The tour began in Princes Town at Glenroy II, one of the sites flagged for the Petrotrin Residential Lots Programme. The ministers, along with acting permanent secretary Nirmala Ramlogan, also visited La Romain II in La Romain, Ponderosa in Golconda and Embacadere in San Fernando.

The sites are expected to yield approximately 800 residential lots for construction of "affordable owner-occupied homes.”

Al-Rawi joined Beckles and company on the tour of the Embacadere site.

The team also visited active HDC construction sites including Riverside North and Corinth in San Fernando. The statement said the site is expected to accommodate 102 three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse units. Twenty-two of the units are being constructed utilising a public-private partnership arrangement.

Other project sites included Harmony Hall, Marabella and Real Spring Park, Valsayn South. The previously stalled Real Spring development is now being constructed under the Infrastructural Development Fund.

“These two developments will yield 102 Townhouses and 408 mixed family units (single family units, town houses and apartments) respectively," the ministry said.

"All of the units will have a three bedroom, two-bathroom configuration except for one hundred and forty-four apartments being constructed at Real Springs, Valsayn which will have a two bedroom, one-bathroom configuration”

The tour ended at Pioneer Drive, Mount Hope and Edinburgh South, Chaguanas. Those three projects are being built under the Small and Medium Contractors Housing Initiative.

“These projects will yield ten townhouses and 23 single family units respectively,” the ministry added.

“The assessment of these and other projects under the housing portfolio will provide the ministers with an understanding to inform future decision making if the ministry is to realize its goal of constructing 25,000 housing units over the next ten years.”