Bad-pay tenants evicted from HDC San Fernando units

A mother of seven cried, pleaded and begged Housing Development Corporation (HDC) officials and police not to evict from her home at Tarodale Gardens, San Fernando, but her cries were in vain.

Furniture and other household appliances were removed from Sabrina Mc Leod's home on Thursday as she offered to pay $25,000 in cash on the $60,000 she owes.

Mc Leod, 32, said she had been living at that unit since she was 15, and had tried to make payments, but each time she visited the HDC office, she was told it was not ready to take her payments.

“They wait until it reach $60,000. I offered to pay $25,000 on the spot today, but they refused.

“Where am I supposed to go with my seven children? On the road?” she asked.

She continued to beg, saying she had a baby, while some of her children had just started school.

Mc Leod was not the only tenant evicted. Some 20 were earmarked for eviction.

Officials from the HDC security department, accompanied by around a dozen heavily armed police officers, oversaw the exercise.

In one instance, a tenant was not at home, but the lock on his unit was cut and officials entered and took household items outside.

Through negotiations, some of the tenants scheduled to be evicted were spared.

The (HDC) confirmed the eviction exercise in a statement on Thursday. It said the eviction was planned as part of a continuing debt-collection drive.

It gave the outstanding debt owed by residents at the Tarodale development as $747,874.48.

The statement confirmed the evictions took place on Thursday, and police were asked to accompany its security staff to prevent any “untoward incidents.”

The HDC did not confirm the number of tenants evicted, but explained they were evicted for a breach in rental agreements for nonpayment since 2008.

In some instances, HDC said, residents were evicted for not paying rent since they had obtained the property, illegal occupancy after the death of the original tenant, and having alternative living arrangements, as well as giving relatives possession of the properties.

It said these tenants were pre-warned on two occasions, and a final warning issued on October 5.

“During this time, the residents were encouraged to make payments towards their arrears.

It aslo reminded: “The core mandate of the HDC is to provide affordable housing solutions to low and middle income families who rely on the state for assistance and intervention.

“While the HDC strives to provide government-subsidised homes for all its citizens, it must honour its duty to provide shelter for those most deserving citizens and to meet its contractual obligations to its contractors.”

It said all HDC property agreements explicitly state that a tenant cannot abandon the property or assign, sublet, or otherwise part with the property without the written consent of the HDC.

All HDC agreements, it said, provide for the termination of the tenancy if the tenant breaches these terms.