Slogan or policy?

May 12, 2004

It is really amazing to come across leaders who, whenever confronted with certain unsettling situations, seem either unable to place developments within their correct and appropriate perspective or, worse, seem ignorant of the very programmes implemented by the organisation that they lead.

Quite amazing, really, because one would expect that what should ever be foremost in the head-space and mindset of the leader or leaders are the policies and programmes that their organisational outfit has running on the ground geared to make their policies a reality.

Recently the leader of government was faced with a situation in which squatters within his constituency had their makeshift homes demolished by a government agency-the National Housing Authority.

What one expected logically to follow was a seizing of this golden opportunity by the leader or leadership to elucidate and market a comprehensive appraisal of Government’s cluster of programmes that is geared to alleviate all dimensions of the problem of housing. But this is yet to be.

In the heat of battle during the contest for state power, manifestos are produced outlining policies and programmes but they are rarely read. What are crucial then are the emotional slogans, such as "master day done" and "we care," that are not in themselves policy but cutely sum up the vision of policy and send home the right signals and touch people’s hearts and spirits.

However, one must quite early in the day separate such emotional slogans from the actual policy statements, moreso, if one were to be a leader.

It is after the hustings have cooled and the day to day responsibility of governance comes to bear that people, leaders in particular, have to cast aside all emotional rallying cries and calls, and even cast aside any attendant personal hurt and pique, and deal holistically with national problems for the greatest good.

It is a gross contradiction not to see this in the issue of "squatting" but to see it and act accordingly in regard to the issue of a national minimum wage for the construction sector. In the end, the overriding and fundamental policy of collective bargaining had to supersede any emotional desire for a separate minimum wage in any specific sector.

In like manner the overall housing policy must supersede any emotional claims by anybody for separate and special treatment.

What then is the present situation? It is calculated that there is a demand for some 10,000 houses to be fulfilled on an annual basis. It is a demand that seems impossible to satisfy. Sixty per cent of the whole population of T&T inhabits the East/West Corridor, and it stands to reason that the pressure for housing will be mostly felt there.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the western peninsula is virtually beyond the pockets of the average citizen, given the inflated value of real estate in this part of the country due to race, class and other sociological factors.

A recent report on One Woodbrook Place, the latest housing scheme in the area where Starlift and Phase II steelbands were once located, indicates that a three-bedroom townhouse down there is priced at $2.8 million and despite the fact that the project has only just begun, almost all of the 820 units have been taken up.

The result is that children and grandchildren of the average folk on the western peninsula cannot afford to build or rent there anymore, so the pressure on the area from Morvant to Arima increases.

A similar pressure is expended on the urban environs around San Fernando, our industrial city, as the gas boom kicks in and activity is stepped up in the area. The natural migration from rural to urban as people seek jobs also adds to the pressure and results in an increase in the number of squatters all over.

The situation is indeed explosive to say the least. The NHA has a data base of over 30,000 applicants for housing. The aim is to try and build quickly, to deliver at least 3,000 units this year and to encourage private developers to take up the challenge to design, finance and construct houses that will be taken up by the Government.

A consortium of banks has been organised to provide the finance to developers and $1.6 billion has been set aside by Government to offer citizens soft mortgages. At the same time a number of other related measures have been taken to ease the explosive situation.

The NHA has offered home improvement grants and to date some l7,400 applications are being processed. Another grant for housing repair with a ceiling of $10,000 is being offered by the Self-Help Commission of the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, for people who are destitute, physically-challenged and/or without a fixed income.

These funds for the Self-Help Commission are obtained from the National Social Development Programme (NSDP) which also funds projects geared to improve water supply and rural electrification through WASA and T&TEC.

The LSA (Land Settlement Agency) of the NHA has also been issuing "letters of comfort" to help regularise some squatters who are on state lands that have neither been earmarked for housing nor have been set aside for reforestation, nor have been designated watershed areas.

These letters of comfort allow such people to pursue accessing finance as well as social amenities such as water and electricity.

The LSA also assists squatters on private lands by negotiating with private owners to sell at pepper-corn rates, eg below $10 a square foot but this only happens in areas where the private owners have failed to obtain outline approvals from Town and Country.

In addition, millions of dollars of IDB funds have been accessed via the CDF (Community Development Fund) to help poverty alleviation through infrastructural development.

It is interesting to note that in no year to date has more than 20 per cent of the budgets of both the CDF and NSDP ever been utilised. Why? It is because of the sheer weight of the bureaucratic decision-making process and a lack of proper marketing of the programmes.

The people who most need these funds just do not know such funding exists, much less how to access these funds. That is the problem.

But the big man says his party campaigned on the basis that "we care" and if "we care", squatters should be demolished as soon as they build rather that later. And not one word about the measures that exist to assist the need to get ahead. And the best kept secrets continue to be kept secrets.