St Philip South Member of Parliament Indar Weir wants Barbadians to be realistic when seeking housing help from their parliamentary representatives.
He made the appeal as he expressed concern that many constituents expected their MPs to perform miracles and were not aware of the process of creating housing solutions.
Speaking during debate in the House of Assembly on a resolution to vest State lands at Dodds Plantation, St Philip in the the National Housing Corporation (NHC) for residential, commercial and recreational purposes, Weir said constituents who visit his office under the belief they only had to “say I want a house, and you are going to pull one out of a box”, do not understand the process.
“And I believe that we have reached a point now in our development that we should be able to help people to understand processes – How do I go about applying for a house? And if, in truth and fact, you need your MP’s support, that support should only come by way of guidance and by way of helping you break through some of the bureaucracy that stands before you.
“But it is really not possible for an MP to push his or her hand in a bag and say ‘here is a house’ because you have asked. And I feel that I have the need and responsibility to put that on the floor because unless we address these issues, those expectations will continue, and people will not trust us,” said Weir, who is also Minister of Agriculture.
He added: “What is worse about it is that when those who seek to unseat us continue to give them the impression that ‘yes, this is the way it’s done and it can be done’, only getting themselves involved in the political perfidy that has continued to permeate this country, then I recognise that we would have a problem.”
Noting that the government has been heavily criticised for seeking to move squatters living on the dump at Rock Hall, St Philip, Weir said he anticipated the Mia Mottley administration would be further condemned because some of those people would be relocated to the Dodds housing project.
However, he said a responsible government should ignore the rhetoric as he stressed that the squatters must be removed from the dangerous situation in which they are living.
“There are people who choose to be on the streets, and we have found places for those people, which is called a shelter or a home for the homeless. There are people who have chosen not to work, and we have found support for them through a system called welfare.
“There are people who cannot afford to feed themselves or their families and can’t afford to pay their bills. We have mustered up support for them through our constituency offices, through the same welfare, or through various government programmes.
“How can anybody with a conscience tell me that a person who couldn’t find anywhere to live must find shelter for family, must find shelter for self, and therefore went and rigged up a structure on a dump, should not be delivered and given help? I stand to await the answer from those with a conscience because I expect those without a conscience to say anything to the contrary,” Weir argued.
(AH)
The post Weir: Housing can’t be pulled “out of a box” appeared first on Barbados Today.