Legislation needed to ensure quality housing for renters, says Caddle

Government backbencher Marsha Caddle is calling for legislation to force landlords to ensure a minimum standard of accommodation if they want to put their properties up for rental.

Making the call in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, she said there are still too many situations in which people are renting houses that would fail any occupancy standard.

The Member of Parliament for St Michael South Central insisted that a person should be able to live safely in any house placed on the market for rent.

“It should mean that the people who live there do not run the risk that because of the quality of the housing, some harm is going to come to them or they cannot live safely,” she said during her contribution to the debate on the Supplementary Estimates No. 10 2021-2022.

She also pointed to the need for a clear policy on the circumstances under which Government can proceed with repairs on houses when tenants cannot get permission from landlords.

Caddle said the inability to reach these landlords becomes a serious problem when Government agencies need to either carry out repairs on houses or install waterborne facilities on their properties. This, she said, was evident as the Mia Mottley administration sought to repair homes damaged during the passage of Hurricane Elsa last year.

“If you speak to those who are in the trenches every day having to complete these rebuilds and repairs for Hurricane Elsa, there are issues beyond the availability of capital, the availability of resources that mean that some individuals will see significant delays in getting their homes repaired.

“This is not because the UDC [Urban Development Commission], RDC [Rural Development Commission], or NHC [National Housing Corporation] aren’t ready to move, but it is because there are other policy issues that are intervening,” the former Government Minister said.

“So, I rise, Mr Chairman, simply to encourage us not just to throw our hands in the air and say ‘oh we can’t proceed because we don’t have landlord permission’ and in the meantime, people are living in situations where they don’t have access to waterborne facilities, they don’t have indoor plumbing, they have to go into the yard to use the bathroom or they can’t move back into a house that is safe.”

Caddle, therefore, urged fellow Parliamentarians to “look at the legislative reform that is required and to step forward with courage and make these changes while it is going to be meaningful in people’s lives”. (AH)