The National Housing Corporation (NHC) is assisting some of Barbadians who own houses but for various reasons need land to relocate their properties.
This was confirmed yesterday by Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland and NHC chief legal officer Henrietta Bourne-Forde after the issue was raised by Member of Parliament for St James North Edmund Hinkson.
Speaking during the Appropriation Bill, 2025 debate in Parliament, Hinkson, an attorney, said: “All of us know as representatives of the people the issue . . . where some of our constituents may own a house, but they don’t have land to put the house on. In some cases . . . the landlord may have given them notice to quit to move off of the land.”
He said, in other cases, home-owners did not have the finances to buy the land and asked how the Ministry of Housing was dealing with this problem.
Sutherland said the NHC was helping people who were faced with this challenge.
“Helping every last person, that’s our mantra, . . . the idea of National Housing [Corporation] owning land and persons being able to rent the land. We are pushing home-ownership, and if these persons can rent the land, yes, we are fine. We are relocating persons, and we are renting them the land.”
“Currently, there are at least four persons before the board I know who are looking to rent land. They don’t own the land, they have been asked to vacate the land, they have their own homes and . . . we would assist with the moving of the house, and, of course, the land is not free, we can’t offer the land for free.”
Bourne-Forde noted that the NHC “has been tasked with making every effort to locate lands for persons who have been dispossessed”.
“In some instances . . . persons may own their own houses, but you may have been given a notice to quit by a landlord or there may be social circumstances where you need to remove yourself from the property,” she said.
“At Parish Land, in particular, I can speak about that, in Christ Church, we . . . have officers in the field trying to identify any lots that may be available to cater to those persons who have those needs.
“You have your own house, but you need land either to rent or the option to purchase. So this is something that we have placed on the front burner to enfranchise persons.”
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