By Chantalé Fletcher
TOBAGONIANS will receive land or homes come this Friday.
The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine made the announcement on Wednesday at a press conference.
He said the Division of Settlements, Public Utilities and Rural Development would begin the process of land distribution, along with the distribution of pre-constructed duplexes and single-family units at Riseland on Friday.
He said, “A lottery system is done to select individuals at random for allotment of either lots of land or a house or in this case, a duplex.
“On the application persons are asked to indicate the housing scheme in which they want to be considered for.
“So only those who indicated they want to be placed in Riseland or Belle Garden will be placed in the draw on Friday.”
Augustine said that 25% of the allotment was usually preassigned if there was a specific criterium that included people in the protective services, those differently-abled and with significant special needs.
He said, “If you have a lottery system, you could end up giving out 100% of the houses and not a single differently-abled person is selected or not a single person from the protective services is selected.”
Augustine said the 25% was to allow balance in the system which they met in place.
The THA Secretary said he understood that citizens experienced anxiety over the lottery draw system which was understandable.
He said, “When we look on average, over the last 21 years, the THA only gave out about 11 houses or lots per year.
Augustine said, “So there’s anxiety that less than one year into office, we could be essentially distributing above our annual average which was a massive achievement.
“But please, this will not be the last; we have only now getting started and the vision has a mandate to rule out more lots in terms of lands, so you can start building for your families.”
Augustine said that the division was also in the process of treating with existing Home Improvement Grant requests and it would allow new applications to be addressed in a more timely manner.
