A two-bedroom town house in west Trinidad costs around $2 million. A three-bedroom house in east Trinidad costs between $1 and $2 million. With few affordable home ownership opportunities in the private sector, and a lengthy waiting period for an oversubscribed Housing Development Corporation (HDC) applicant list of over 200,000, citizens are eager to buy property—even if they are vandalised or incomplete.
Yesterday, Housing Minister Randall Mitchell told the Sunday Guardian there were approximately 900 unoccupied HDC units available presently, some of which were vandalised or in various states of disrepair.
Pressed to give a concrete figure for the vandalised homes, Mitchell declined.
“The information I have is that as at June 2016 there were about 1,490 unoccupied units. Since then, we repaired about 500,” Mitchell said.
The HDC has been the target of vandals and thieves, with some homes temporarily used by vagrants for shelter.
In HDC’s Couva Development, doors have been removed from houses and windows have been smashed.
In Oasis Gardens, Egypt Village and Endeavour, toilets, doors and kitchen sinks have been carted away and windows have been shattered in some vacant units.
Evidence of someone or some people using bathrooms in the units or sleeping on cardboard makeshift beds are visible.
Some units are clearly incomplete with just the shell of the structure and roof finished, while window and door installations remain missing.
People want discounted prices
Despite this, citizens interviewed by the Guardian said they are more than willing to accept these units.
“I would take it in the morning if I was offered,” said 30-year-old HDC applicant Jason Marcano.
Marcano, who first applied to the HDC in 2007, said he has been actively looking at options for purchasing a home for the past two years.
“It wouldn’t really matter to me if they sold it as is without tidying up or putting whatever finishing touches, I’d take one.
“Housing is so hard to get right now. To me, it’s just like buying a fixer upper and no matter how you look at it, it is going to be much less than the market price.”
Marcano said in his searches, it was very difficult to find even a two-bedroom house for under a million dollars.
“I’ve been looking for houses independently as I know how long things take with the HDC but it really is too expensive for someone with a single income source, which is really discouraging for young people,” Marcano said.
Marcano’s comments were a reflection of over 400 posts on the Guardian Facebook page in response to a question on whether people were willing to accept a vandalised or incomplete HDC house.
The overwhelming response was yes, with some asking for a discounted price.
Compared to houses sold by private developers, the HDC units, which are meant to support low-income households, are affordable.
Questioned last week about whether it was fair for a homeowner to get a vandalised house at the same rate, Mitchell pointed out that the prices for the housing units are already heavily subsidised.
He said the homes were about 40 per cent subsidised and added that the HDC did not charge homeowners for land or infrastructure.
‘Bank interests too high, I can’t afford a home’
The cost of HDC homes checked by the Guardian were under market value.
According to a 2014 Joint Select Committee (JSC) Report into the HDC the cost of housing units range from $350,000 to $450,000 generally and $764,000 to $880,000 for units located in areas like Fidelis Heights and Maracas as these units were constructed at a higher cost than usual.
Even higher costs of over a million dollars have been estimated for Victoria Keyes in Diego Martin.
Kimberley Williams, a mother of four young children, said she and her husband would eagerly purchase a vandalised home, though she admitted her husband had reservations.
“He wants it for less because he says it is unfair to pay for something that isn’t finished. We spend $3,500 on rent monthly but we didn’t qualify for any of the homes we looked at in Central, so I say if we could get one and fix it up, we should be happy.”
Tespher Francois, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer, said whether vandalised or not, the HDC had the only affordable housing option.
“There is a market for more affordable housing but all the private developers focus on building million-dollar homes and all the banks want to charge so much interest you can’t afford a monthly instalment. I don’t have options, so if they offer it like that, that’s what I’ll take, either way it’s people on a ten-to-15-year wait list.”
Francois said while the wait was long, it was the only choice for some people.
Asked whether he had explored other options for buying a home for his family, he said yes.
“But how am I affording that? When you go to the bank, it’s a big runaround and the kind of instalments they want. It’s better I buy a container and live in that and when somebody say I have to move just move my container. They leaving me with no choice.”
$8M FOR REMEDIAL WORKS IN 2010
In the 2014 JSC report, the total cost of remedial works on HDC houses for the period January to December 2010 was listed as $8,118,351.69 (VAT exclusive). Additionally, $4,491,800.00 was expended on the removal of waste water from several housing developments for the same year.
The committee also noted the demand for housing was 214,000 at the time with an estimated increase of 14,000 applicants annually.
The Sunday Guardian was unable to get more recent figures as to the cost of remedial works per year for the HDC.