Some 60 additional families will be celebrating Christmas in new homes, after they received keys from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) at Cypress Hill Housing Development yesterday.
Speaking during the key distribution ceremony titled “A Home for Christmas,” HDC chief executive officer Jayselle McFarlane said the homes delivered yesterday had taken the number distributed over the last three months to 165.
“We began with 60 in August, another 45 in September and with today’s allocations, another 60,” she said.
Minister of Housing and Urban Development Camille Robinson-Regis also said over 100 other families had benefitted from housing initiatives over the same period.
“We have also delivered in the last three months, through the LSA (Land Settlement Agency), 37 starter homes, 75 certificates of comfort, 60 fully-developed housing lots to former employees of state-owned Petrotrin and an additional 25 fully-developed lots to other qualified citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.
“That, ladies and gentlemen, amounts to over 362 families that are breathing a little easier today.”
However, Robinson-Regis reminded the homeowners that this comes with a responsibility.
“Please remember to pay your mortgage and please remember to pay your rent,” she said.
“Although the CEO said that we are trying to make sure everybody does their duty, if you don’t pay your mortgage or you don’t pay your rent, we will move you out of the house.”
Minister in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Adrian Leonce, told the recipients they also had a duty to their new communities.
“A community is important with each individual. A community is made by the persons that reside in it. So, you all that are receiving keys here have a responsibility to making the communities, the place that you want it to be,” he said.