THE LOW-INCOME HOUSING PROBLEM in Barbados is being made worse by young mothers who are being put out on the streets while a number of deadbeat fathers are failing to play their role.
This was outlined by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, who admitted that thousands of persons over the years had turned to the state for help with housing.
In fact, he said if the Barbados Labour Party had done such a good job in dealing with the matter of low-income housing, the Democratic Labour Party would not have come to power to find a waiting list of 28 000 at the National Housing Corporation (NHC).
Stuart was speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday on a resolution to vest about 5 900 square metres of Crown land at the former site of the District “E” Police Station in St Peter in the Ministry of Housing and Lands for housing development.
“Successive governments have tried their best to deal with the issue of low- and middle-income housing . . . and the problem threatens to become more acute as a strange trend has developed,” the Prime Minister noted.
Getting larger
“The rental class is getting larger and larger because a large number of young women, in particular, with children, [are] . . . asked to leave their place of ordinary residence by their parents [and] have to turn to the NHC. Most of them are unemployed with deadbeat fathers, large numbers of children and the only place they can turn is to the state. The National Housing Corporation has been put under enormous pressure as a result of that.”
He said Government had come up with the 500 lot programme to target those who were squatting, as well as speeding up conveyances for those who had resided in terrace units and had qualified to purchase their homes. (GE)