Criminal gangs are moving into delapidated Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartment complexes in San Fernando and they remain untouched. So said Pleasantville councillor Robert Parris who raised the matter during the new San Fernando City Corporation first statutory meeting yesterday.
“There is a gang problem in San Fernando. It is no secret and my community is plagued by that and you have these dilapidated homes that these guys are occupying and the police are quite aware of it. I am hoping that once and for all, my plea is heard,” Parris said. He also raised concern about the lack of maintenance of housing developments and who was responsible for repairing box drains, cleaning the overgrown catchment ponds and removing garbage at the Orchid Gardens site in Pleasantville, San Fernando.
He added: “The HDC is one of the biggest violators of human safety in Trinidad and Tobago and I stand by what I say because I represent the second oldest housing development in Trinidad and Tobago, that being Pleasantville.
“Through council, we have not been able to get a handle over Orchid Gardens or in the case of my colleague councillor Rondel Donawa at Tarouba Heights and other parts of San Fernando that may be under the auspices of the HDC. It impedes on the physical infrastructure on what we can do for these parts of our community.
“In Orchid Gardens, the residents have been living there for about seven years now and drains are now falling down. I always allude to the catchment pit in the park of Orchid Gardens. I call it the catchment pit of death in that is overgrown with bushes. We had the highest case of dengue in the area in 2010 and 2011 in that area specifically.”
Thumps of approval followed Parris’ contributions yesterday with San Fernando mayor Kazim Hosein announcing that one of his first order of business was to request a meeting with the HDC to address those concerns. But in a response, HDC’s managing director Jearlean John said yesterday communities constructed by the HDC years ago for mortgage arrangements were the responsibility of local government corporations.
She said where people had purchased and received deeds for their homes, it was their responsibility to maintain it. Pleasantville was built by the National Housing Authority roughly 25 years ago and Orchid Gardens, an extension of the community, was constructed approximately seven years ago by the HDC.
John said: “This is a place that was settled over 25 years ago. Those places belong to people. Not because HDC developed the property means it is a HDC property... (Orchid Gardens) Seven years old, so how long will we keep maintaining it? “They have bought their houses, they are now owners of houses. Things like drains and what have you, the city corporation doesn’t think they can take over those drains by now?
John said the HDC was only liable for maintenance and repairs in communities where there were rental accommodations. She added: “In rented communities, we continue to have maintenance but when it is a mortgage community, home owners have to face responsibility for the maintenance of their homes. “In many of these cases, these are mortgage properties so titles would have passed. HDC can’t break and enter people’s yard to go and clean and so on.”
Despite that, she said, HDC officials intended to visit the communities to assess Parris’ claims and to see if there were any properties belonging to the HDC that needed to be maintained.