RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Christ­mas came ear­ly for 91 fam­i­lies who col­lect­ed keys for starter homes from the Land Set­tle­ment Agency (LSA) dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at the au­di­to­ri­um of the Gov­ern­ment Plaza in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

In a brief ad­dress Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Colm Im­bert said most of the re­cip­i­ents were from his Diego Mar­tin North East con­stituen­cy. With pride he added that the starter homes cost just $150,000 which he point­ed out was one-tenth of the cost of an HDC house.

“And you’re still get­ting a house that is close to com­ple­tion,” he said.

“I do wish I could do so much more of this. This should be a spe­cial project all on its own and as long as I am Min­is­ter of Fi­nance I will fund this pro­gramme to the hilt,” Im­bert said.

Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Camille Robin­son-Reg­is said she is hold­ing Im­bert to his promise of more funds which will mean more starter homes to al­lo­cate to cit­i­zens.

The starter homes are avail­able through the Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme (HVI) which pro­vides suit­able and af­ford­able hous­ing to re­cip­i­ents in com­mu­ni­ties where there is poor qual­i­ty hous­ing and in­fra­struc­ture. The pro­gramme al­so cre­ates em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for res­i­dents, par­tic­u­lar­ly young and un­em­ployed per­sons.

The HVI Pro­gramme us­es an aid­ed self-help ap­proach. Re­cip­i­ents are en­cour­aged to pro­vide sweat eq­ui­ty and the fin­ish­ing touch­es to turn their units in­to homes. Each unit is con­fig­ured in an open floor con­cept that al­lows the home­own­er to de­sign the in­te­ri­or space to suit the spe­cif­ic needs of fam­i­lies. The units are out­fit­ted with roofs, doors, win­dows and in­door bath­room fa­cil­i­ties.