Sou Sou Lands Co-operative Society wants to help Ramjattan Trace squatters

The Sou Sou Lands Co-operative Society, a non-profit organisation since 1987, has said it is willing to help find land for the people who were evicted from Ramjattan Trace, Arima, last week.

“We would like to speak with them because we feel like we can assist,” said chairman of Sou Sou Lands Co-operative Society Lennox Sankersingh, in an interview with Newsday on February 9. “We can also go to them. We can chat and see what is possible.”

Sankersingh said while the lands the organisation has available may not be close to Ramjattan Trace, if squatters were to visit the Sou Sou Lands office in Couva, iy may be able to help.

“If they make contact with us we can show them where we have land. If they are interested in getting a lot, we can fix a price and take it from there.”

Ramjattan said since the organisation was formed it has helped over 3,000 families and distributed over 2,000 parcels of land.

“If we know that people are squatting in a particular area and we are aware that the government is going to demolish their homes, we try to intervene on their behalf,” Sankersingh said. “Many times our efforts are not successful, because the government may have earmarked the land for certain things, but we still try to talk to people if we are aware.”

Sankersingh made the offer after a total of 12 homes said to be illegally built in the La Culebra site at Ramjattan Trace, off Tumpuna Road, Arima, were demolished on February 6.

A release from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) on behalf of the Commissioner of State Lands said the operation was an attempt to address illegal squatting at the site.

A history of helping

Sankersingh said the co-operative started almost 42 years ago, when one of its founders, then MP for St Augustine John Humphrey, sought to relocate 17 squatting families who were to be evicted from the Trincity estate, where the Trincity Mall stands today.

“The owners of the estate wanted to build the mall and they wanted the squatters off the land. Of course squatters wouldn’t just get off the land, because they built their homes there, invested their money and were raising their children there.

“The owners got a court order against the squatters, which was their right, so the squatters went to Humphrey to help them because they knew he was sympathetic to squatters. He had been helping squatters since the 1970s.”

He said Humphrey tried to get alternative land for them. He asked the owners to stay their hand on demolishing their home for two weeks, then went to Sankersingh, who had recently been admitted to the Bar.

“I wrote the owners and asked for the extension and they granted it. So we had two weeks to find a place to put them.”

Humphrey first went to other existing squatting areas, but the families were turned away. Then, he sought to buy agricultural land that was for sale.

“We were in the oil-boom years and money was flowing like water. There was a lot of development work taking place and people didn’t want agricultural land, so there were a lot of estates for sale at reasonable prices.”

The first estate the co-operative bought was in Coryal, in Sangre Grande. The families agreed to contribute toward buying the land, but the money they gathered was not enough, so the co-operative offered land to anyone willing to contribute. Sankersingh said, to his surprise hundreds of people came forward.

The land was eventually bought for about $200,000.

The co-operative, through contributions and support from would-be home owners, was able to buy up to 13 estates in areas such as Cunaripo, Las Lomas, Morvant, Penal, Carlsen Field and Tobago.

Squatting a solution, not a problem

According to the Land Settlement Agency (LSA’s) website there are over 250 squatting sites on state lands in TT, with about 23,000 squatting households seeking certificates of comfort.

During a parliamentary Public Accounts Committee hearing in January, CEO of LSA Hazar Hosein said there were over 60,000 squatting households in the country. This data came from LSA’s social surveys of all known squatting sites up to 2019/2020.

He added that the number of squatters on state lands grows at a rate of about 300-400 squatting families a year.

Commissioner of State Lands Paula Drakes added that squatter developments have encroached on 50-60 per cent of forest reserves in North and Central Trinidad.

During the hearing Drakes said the majority of lower-level forest reserves had been turned either to squatting zones or quarry sites, with more squatters moving higher on the Northern Range, past the 300-metre contour.

But Sankersingh and Humphrey, in conversations with Newsday, said squatting was a solution, rather than a problem.

“Humphrey really believed that for people waiting for the government to provide them with land – some waiting for 20 years and 25 years – squatting was really a solution, rather than a problem,” Sankersingh said.

“Once the land is not needed for some public use, like a school or something like that, if they are to provide alternative housing, they already have housing there. Just try to regularise those people as best as they can and use the other available land for your projects.”

He noted, however, that while the philosophy was a good one, there were several factors and variables that needed to be considered.

Humphrey, quoting from the Constitution, said affordable housing is a constitutional and a human right.

“The economic system should result in the material resources of the community being so distributed as to subserve the common good and provide adequate means of livelihood for all. That is what the Constitution promises.

“Shelter is a fundamental human right under the UN. If shelter is a fundamental human right, then our rights are guaranteed by our constitution.

“Right now, people cannot buy a piece of land for their family.

"My grandson bought a piece of land near to where I live in Glencoe for a million dollars. Land is so expensive that not even the successful people in the country can buy land for the next generation," Humphrey said.