THA employs len' hand to build homes

Home ownership is beyond the reach of most Tobagonians, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has lamented.

He was speaking on Sunday at the roll out of the Home Ownership Made Equal (Home) initiative in Bon Accord.

At the site where the first home in the programme is being constructed, Augustine said the initiative is focused on providing support to Tobago’s most vulnerable, as he acknowledged that the cost of land and houses at market price are extremely high.

“The average Tobagonians very often cannot afford what is on the open market – our market prices are exorbitant. It is above and beyond what they should be and that’s not withstanding some years ago, an ill-thought-out decision to have a land licensing regime. That did not help the land prices that we face.

"We also have in our space a cadre of individuals who really and truly just cannot afford – even if the THA is to sell them a piece of land and they could afford that, they won’t be able to afford to build a home. If the THA builds the home, they can’t afford it, but they are around the neediest of them all.”

He said the initiative is geared towards targeting people who are experiencing extenuating circumstances that would prohibit them from being able to afford a home. He said some of those circumstances may be precipitated by emergencies such as a fire.

“Fire came out of nowhere, your house is burnt flat and you really can’t rebuild, and certainly a $25,000 grant from the division can’t build a foundation in 2023. Or there might be a hurricane or flood waters or land slippage that requires you to move; those are extenuating circumstances by virtue of emergency that moved you from being a home-owner and moved you to the place of being improvised, being poor and not being able to build a home.

"Another exonerated circumstance is those with varying disabilities who otherwise would just not be able to afford and if you should check what the grants are for disabilities, it really is not a lot and those grants cannot afford paying for or building a home.”

He said the visually- and hearing-impaired, as well as people who have mobility challenges, very often also have challenges finding jobs – and well-paying jobs – that would allow them to be able to build their own homes.

“There is also the factor that some people would have also had generations of poverty to contend with – poverty upon poverty upon poverty, for generations, two or three generations, they’re struggling to make ends meet and still struggling.”

He said for this programme, residents, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) can make contact with the division through their area representative.

Augustine said the first house is a two-bedroom, one-bathroom dwelling for a visually impaired person. Adding that the program is heavily centred around volunteerism, he said that the THA’s input is materials only as the labour, equipment and furnishings were all donated to the cause.

“When the NGOs and CBOs approach the division to include someone in the initiative, they must bear in mind that they must also put some sweat equity into it as well. We have to go back to the days, Tobago, when len' hand means something, when len' hand is more than sitting in your home and peeping to see how big your neighbour house getting, and see what your neighbour doing, to see if you can outmatch your neighbour.

He said the executive hopes to construct 25 homes in the first phase of this programme. Secretary of Settlement, Public Utilities and Rural Development Ian Pollard said this is the start of a programme he was mandated to launch one year ago. He said his team visited Jamaica in November 2022 to see a similar project first-hand with the aim of replicating it.

“Through the help of the community and the THA, we’ll be able to finish this house,” Pollard declared.

Electoral representative for the area Joel Sampson said he was indeed happy for the roll out of the programme, adding that it not only brings relief to the residents in his district but across the entire island.

“A year ago when the secretary and his assistant was mandated by the chief secretary to have this programme rolled out, persons wondered: would it work?"

He said the roll out of the project shows the THA has "visionaries" and it is "a start of good things to come.”