Please help this pensioner acquire a house-lot

Apr 26, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
At a ‘housing drive’ at Leonora in December last year, several persons were contacted by the Ministry of Housing and Water to attend the event and to walk with monies to ‘pay down’ on house-lots. In the case of a 63-year-old, physically challenged, La Grange woman, she was specifically told to walk with a third of the land’s cost ($36,000). She was told that the land she would be getting will cost $100,000 and $8,000 would be for miscellaneous fees (title, transportation to identify land, etc.) After she arrived at the event, she was called up to speak to one of the Ministry’s staff. She was told that the Ministry only has lands upwards of $500,000. She was told to pay “whatever she had”, which was obviously $36,000. The pensioner was subsequently informed that she would have to complete payments equivalent to 50 percent of the land’s cost ($270,000) by the end of January 2021. She failed to meet that two-week deadline.
She then wrote to the Minister requesting a cheaper house-lot. That letter was received by a woman who identified herself as the Minister’s secretary. Several weeks later, she was called in to the Ministry to meet with a Ms. Natasha to discuss the land. When she got there, she expressed her difficulty in satisfying the amount requested, and inquired about her letter requesting a cheaper house-lot. She was told that the letter could not be found and that she should write another one requesting a cheaper land. She was told that failure to pay off the cost of the land by July 2021 would result in the land being “taken back”.
Editor, the pensioner applied for a house-lot in 2008. Her plan is to get the land and apply to a foundation that builds houses for the less fortunate. Now, she is required to pay for a land five times the cost she had anticipated.
Shouldn’t the cost of the land to be allocated depend on the applicant’s income? This mechanism is surely lacking or non-existent. How else can you explain the presence of multi-storeyed houses outfitted with air-conditioners and garages in low-income areas in schemes like La Parfaite Harmonie (Lust-en-Rust) and Tuschen? If this PPP/C is serious about fixing issues at the Housing Ministry, this would be a great place to start.
Meanwhile, if the Honourable Ministers are willing to make this pensioner’s dream come through, I have received permission to have the editors share her contact info.
Your’s Truly,
M. Hope

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