Residents disagree with Prescod on housing allocation

The soon-to-be-completed housing units in Tichbourne, St Michael, should be given to persons most in need.

That was the response of several constituents of St Michael East to their Member of Parliament Trevor Prescod’s insistence that people living in the constituency should be given priority.

Speaking at a press conference earlier in the day, Prescod strongly disagreed with the Government’s decision to temporarily relocate people currently housed at the Barbados Workers’ Union Labour College in Mangrove to the soon to be completed steel frame housing units in Tichbourne.

Those individuals were displaced when Hurricane Elsa did significant damage to their homes last year.

Prescod contended that there were scores of people in his constituency who were desperately in need of housing assistance.

However, when Barbados TODAY spoke to some constituents, they said the houses should be given to any persons in need.

“I personally believe that the priority should be the persons that don’t have any homes, like the persons who were affected by Hurricane Elsa. Let us put something in place to help those people,” said Dale Rowe, who resides in Tichbourne.

“The other people who already have income coming in, they can hold out and hold a little strain until then.”

A similar view was held by Pearson Belle, who has been living in Tichbourne for the past 60 years.

He said it would not be fair to give someone priority simply because they lived in the constituency.

“Anybody that really in need [of] somewhere should get it. It don’t matter bout who live in the neighbourhood and who this and who that because there might be some people in the neighbourhood that have something already but still want,” Belle argued.

Pearson Belle

“People that in need [of] somewhere, give them, regardless of where they are from. They are people in the neighbourhood who can do something for themselves. They can get up and look for their own.”

Another longtime resident Joan Kelly agreed.

“A lot of people that live out here have their own homes and there are certain people in the constituency that might not want those kinds of houses. I think it should go to the people who are really in need, regardless of where you are from, so long as they don’t bring someone that is violent or nothing like that,” she said.

Joan Kelly

Another constituent who spoke to Barbados TODAY on condition of anonymity said it would be unfair to prioritise people based on where they live.

“You could have a position where you have a person who is really desperate for some place to live, someone who lives in deplorable conditions. Why should they be overlooked simply because they don’t live in St Michael East? That can’t be fair.

“It cannot simply be a case of people getting houses because they live in the constituency. This isn’t about politics, this is about helping people who can’t do better for themselves, because at the end of the day we are all Barbadians,” she stated.

An elderly man who only gave his name as ‘Joe’ said although he understood that Prescod was looking out for his constituents, his position was not rational.

While he believes that some of the houses should be allocated to people living in the constituency, he had no problem with people from other areas being placed in the units, based on their circumstances.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb