Housing quagmire

ANYONE listening to newly reinstalled chairman of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) Noel Garcia on Tuesday should be forgiven if they experienced a sense of deja vu.

“I want to give the assurance to the people of TT that they will see an acceleration of the delivery of houses and in particular affordable housing,” Mr Garcia said. “For too long, the HDC has neglected what I would term the minimum-wage earner.”

We have heard such assurances before.

“There will be no more three- and four-million-dollar units being built by the HDC,” the Prime Minister assured in 2015, a few months after coming into office. He said the State would encourage the private sector to finance projects, noting high levels of liquidity in the banking sector.

Fast forward to almost ten years later and not only does the housing shortage remain acute, but some of the same promises are being made.

Mr Garcia noted the HDC would seek out loan funding to the tune of $1 billion from regional and local banking sources.

He promised the delivery of more units in Chaguanas, Port of Spain and Diego Martin; said 1,000 units required maintenance; and announced 2,800 houses would be distributed and completed.

But as much as housing has become a political football, the issues bedevilling the housing stock straddle successive governments.

As far back as 2010, after a commission of enquiry into the public construction sector was led by John Uff, the problems at the HDC were well-known.

Prof Uff’s report noted “substantial cost-overruns” at the HDC, lack of clarity in relation to procurement rules, organisational deficiencies and problems with the overall quality of dwellings being built.

It seems to matter not who is in power. Houses already built continue to deteriorate, with questions about basic supporting infrastructure being not infrequent, and the State’s housing targets continue to shrink in an ostensible bid to get the private sector to pick up the slack.

Nobody, in the meanwhile, has examined the issue of housing costs, whether private or public, and the reasons why more and more people are simply unable to afford new homes, even if mortgages are offered under relatively favourable conditions.

Last year the PM once more asked the private sector to get more involved. But if that sector is not champing at the bit to engage in public/private partnerships, so too are consumers focusing on other areas of spending.

During the budget last September, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced the HDC was borrowing $1.5 billion to pay contractors. The HDC is also due to be split.

While the State tinkers with the system and pumps more money into it, there will remain the perception that more resources are being sunk into a quagmire.