(Trinidad Express) AT LEAST 5,000 new Housing Development Corporation (HDC) houses are to be distributed next year by the Government.
Thousands more which are being renovated will also be given out to successful applicants, Minister of Housing, Land and Marine Affairs Dr Roodal Moonilal, said yesterday.
Moonilal spoke to the media following the opening of the Serenity Heights, Play Park, at Wellington Road, Debe.
“Next year we are hoping to distribute about 5,000 houses, including several thousands from the stocks,” said Moonilal.
“We have thousands of houses that we have now and we are doing repairs and remedial work.
“We are very proud that this year we have been able to complete a couple thousands well. If you look at Corinth and Golconda, if you pass in the night, you will see Christmas trees and decorative lights, that means that more and more people are moving in.”
Moonilal said new houses built at Chaguanas, San Fernando and Princes Town “are among the most beautifully built ever by the public service”.
“But when people start seeing the houses there may be a riot to get them,” the Oropouche East Member of Parliament told the media.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Housing in a media release stated that the Land Settlement Agency (LSA) had distributed over 5,000 application forms since the launch of its “Land for the Landless” programme.
The release stated, “The LSA is aiming to develop and distribute 10,000 residential lots in the first phase of this three-year programme to persons who do not own or part own land and are in the lower socioeconomic strata.”
In delivering the feature address, Moonilal told the gathering that the HDC had delivered during the past year 3,600 units, and embarked on several new projects, amounting to 6,000 new housing starting in South, Central and East Trinidad, and Tobago.
“All of our agencies are working simultaneously and cooperatively to ensure that we adequately build and rebuild communities and do our part to restore hope to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.
“Bit by bit, one project at a time, the learning curve clearly defines that the work of the Ministry of Housing, Land and Marine Affairs and its agencies presents opportunities for us all to build a better society,” said Moonilal.
