East Port of Spain HDC tenants: One week extra isn't enough

Although the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has given tenants at its Independence Square, Port of Spain complex an extra week to fully move into their new homes, the residents are saying it is still not enough time.

On Saturday, the HDC, along with the police, evicted several people from the buildings and removed windows and doors from some of the apartments.

This was done because those buildings are set for demolition and rebuilding as part of the HDC's plan to "revitalise" East Port of Spain.

The HDC said it has been hosting consultations with the tenants since 2021 and has provided each legal tenant with an alternative housing option.

But it added that many people are living there illegally.

HDC chairman Noel Garcia told Newsday no legal tenants were evicted on Saturday – "only squatters and people who had some kind of pumpkin-vine relationship (with legal tenants)."

Newsday visited the complex on Monday morning and saw some evicted tenants had moved their belongings back in, covering the window spaces with curtains or galvanise.

When Newsday returned on Tuesday morning, tenants were seen packing their belongings into bags and on trucks.

Some tenants praised political leader of the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) Watson Duke, saying until he intervened, the media had not been taking them seriously.

Last Friday, Duke staged a two-hour sit-in protest at the HDC's head office against the relocation.

One tenant, who said she is now renting a private apartment in Chaguanas, said a week "could never be enough time.

"What them feel, we have nothing in we place? How you supposed to move out in two weeks' time when you living here all your life?"

She said she had been temporarily relocated there after her home burned down in 2002.

In a release on Monday, the HDC said it had carried out the eviction "peacefully."

Asked for her thoughts on this, the woman said it was far from peaceful.

"OMG. You see how much police they bring here? Peacefully?

"Everybody here paying rent. It have tenants in other places not paying HDC rent, and this is how they treating we? People who got their keys got two and three months to move, and we getting a week?"

Tenant Shoreen De-Bellotte, who has been relocated to Oropune, told Newsday if the HDC was assisting with the moving process, including providing transport, it would have been possible to move in a week.

"But it is so much things. You have to pay for transport and move in a haste."

On Garcia's comment that no legal tenants were evicted, the residents said that was inaccurate.

An HDC employee who lives at the complex also told Newsday a week is not enough for many people, but she is making it her duty to be out of there by then.

"I don't want to go through that (eviction) again.

"And they will turn and say we always knew this was coming, so we should have started to pack sooner."

She has been relocated to Charford Court, Port of Spain.

"I was supposed to leave by March 3. I had already got a month (extra to move) but I went and ask them for a bligh. But they said once you collect your key and the one month is up, you have to go. So they evicted me (on Saturday).

"I not here illegally, but it come like I illegal, because they give me an apartment in Charford and I ain't go."

She said the new apartment has plumbing issues that still need to be fixed before she moves in.

The HDC said other tenants have been relocated to Powder Magazine in Cocorite and Cypress Hills, San Fernando.