Housing Minister Randall Mitchell said yesterday measures are being put in place to help a family transition to their new home after the homeowner complained about the location and school access for her children.
Mitchell said Neisha Wattley’s statements were unfortunate and does not think that she was being ungrateful.
During an interview with CNC3 News yesterday, Mitchell said that other measures were being put in place to assist the family.
“It’s not that we were going to put her in a house and leave her high and dry. We decided even before that through the HDC’s Social Services and Community Division to attach social workers to the family,” Mitchell said.
“She will have to learn to maintain a house, live in a community and maintain her family and officials from the division will help her along the way until she decides that she no longer needs that assistance,” he said.
“What I see there is a woman who is overcome by the challenges that she now faces and we need to still go out there and assist in overcoming her challenges,” Mitchell said.
Asked how consideration was given to the location, Mitchell said that there was no HDC developments close by in Chaguanas and added that Eden Gardens was the closest and also where availability existed.
Asked if Wattley had any objections to living at Eden Gardens, Mitchell replied: “No, she didn’t. She was truly ecstatic but we did envisage that there would be some challenges.”
Mitchell said that he intends to get other ministries involved, including the Ministry of Education and Social Development, to see how they can assist. That help may include having the children transferred to a nearby school.
Asked what happens if Wattley continues to insist that she return to her shack, Mitchell said that there now exists a contractual agreement for early termination.
He also said that transfers are always available to all HDC tenants but would be subject to a number of conditions including availability.
In response to criticisms his wife faced on social media after she said that she no longer wanted the house and that she wanted to return to the shack, Chris Rambahal said yesterday he totally disagreed with her.
“I don’t know why she said that but I am not going back to the shack,” he said.
“I am grateful and happy for the house and I am staying here with the children and I will continue to work hard to see about them,” he said.
Rambahal said that he would not try to make the location of the school an issue as he will make attempts to get them transferred.
Three days before Christmas, Rambahal said that his Christmas wish was for a better home and living conditions for his wife and four children—Ezekiel, eight; Eleisha, five; Eteisha, four and one-year-old Equisha.
Rambahal and his family were living in a small wooden shack just a few metres off the river bank that runs parallel to the southern side of Woodford Lodge in Chaguanas. They lived there for the past six years.
On Father’s Day, June 15, 2014, Rambahal’s six-month-old son, Christopher, died while being breast-fed by his mother. An autopsy revealed that the child died from positional asphyxia.
Rambahal during a previous interview with the T&T Guardian said that since then the People’s Partnership government had promised him a new home.