Four families are now homeless after being evicted by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).
They are now seeking legal advice on the basis that their homes are not owned by the HDC.
They say they have been living on the lands for over fifty years and have now been dislocated to facilitate the Waterfront Project in San Fernando.
Resident Parbatie Ragoonanan says they were given ten days’ notice to move.
“I was asleep, and they came and knocked down the house. The police and HDC banged on the wall and said they came to come to evict us,” she told Guardian Media. “They just took everything [inside the house] and moved [them] out and put [them] outside the house.”
And Brandon Brown and his pregnant girlfriend Faith Noray say the eviction has left them in distress.
“I can’t even go back to my place. I’ve been buying material to fix up my place,” he said, “because I have a baby on the way. All the material is just there. I cast my floor, and I can’t go in my place.”
A distressed Brown told Guardian Media:
“I’m fighting so hard … and I’m backing the Government, and the Government doing me something like this?”
Guardian Media reached out to Housing Minister Camille Robinson-Regis for a comment.
The Minister said the HDC will investigate the matter and respond in due course.