Tag Archives: housing

“[…] I stand here not just for myself, but for every young professional drowning in rent, every couple delaying marriage because they can’t afford a place to live, every parent lying awake wondering if their child will ever own a home. “Trinidad and Tobago is in a housing crisis: 77% …

As a people, we have dreamed that our lives would be better than those of our parents—and that our children would live even better lives. The harsh reality was exposed with the 2017 MFO Economic Sentiment Report. It showed a decline from three-quarters of our people who felt that life …

Trinidad and Tobago’s Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has vowed to expand its supply of homes attainable to the working poor, starting with the reconstruction of rental units at 23rd and 24th Streets in Beetham Gardens. The Beetham project, according to a HDC release, will be “the template for the reconstruction …

Government policies toward public housing are linked to their position on delivering economic growth. To interpret the strategies, we need to appreciate that governments respond to the pressures arising from social and demographic change and adherence to particular ideologies.  These decisions are complicated by the public discourse which advocates that …

For about 30 years, we have been told myths about our economy. Many of these myths have become commonplace and embedded in our psyche and national consciousness—through the media, the education system, and, more concretely, enacted in the laws and policies by every government since the late 1980s. Covid-19 has …

In the mid-60s, Paul Simon wrote: “And in the naked light I saw/ten thousand people maybe more/ people talking without speaking/people hearing without listening/ people writing songs that voices never share/and no one dared disturb the sound of silence..” These lines are about us, our crime situation and the impertinent …

After digesting Gregory Aboud’s insightful commentary in the Trinidad Express, it behooves me to offer a retort. His “Silence of The Elites” piece is chicanery masked as concern for country and changing the status quo. Aboud may genuinely believe that he is offering a compelling and emphatic critique of his …

Now believe me, Madam Minister, I understand the pressure you are under to be seen to be delivering the goods. And as far as PR and Photo Op visibility in our society goes, few events rank higher than a ribbon cutting or key distribution ceremony. The honeymoon period is well …

When I read last Sunday about the government’s intention to build a housing development on lands allocated to the St Augustine Nurseries, it upset me greatly. In the days that followed, I became privy to the Acting Housing Minister’s full statement on the matter as well as the Minister of …

Julius Caesar, the maximum leader of Roman times, was assassinated in the year 44 BC. The dates in the Roman calendar were denominated differently from the manner to which we are accustomed. The mid-point of every month was known as the ides. Caesar was assassinated on the ides of March, …

“There are currently—and this is a figure that comes from the HDC itself—180,000 applicants on the HDC’s books, which is just about 12% of the entire population. That is no surprise. “The surprise is that, despite the length of the waiting list, there are several developments all across the country …