A war of words is brewing between Housing Minister Randall Mitchell and predecessor Dr Roodal Moonilal over the Victoria Keys housing project. It has to do with cost of the project and Government’s decision to put 48 of the units at the posh apartment complex under the ‘Rent to Own’ policy.
Construction of the units started in 2006 with a $200 million price tag and Mitchell said it was “virtually completed” around 2010. But he said after the 2010 general election when the People’s Partnership assumed government, “the Victoria Keyes development was modified to include more luxurious fittings and amenities such as fully air-conditioned buildings, swimming pool, clubhouse, play park, tennis courts and multi-storey car parks with elevators.” The cost of the project jumped from $200 million to over $652m, he said.
Mitchell said at that price each apartment would have cost $2.5m, which “is out of the range of low and middle income earning citizens seeking affordable housing from the HDC.” As a consequence, he said the People’s National Movement Government in September 2016 decided that 206 of the units would be sold on the open market, 48 units would be Rent To Own (RTO) under the Cabinet-approved allocation policy and 10 units would be reserved for Government use.
But Moonilal has taken issue with the rent to own plan for the units, saying it is scandalous that a policy meant for low-income applicants can be used to provide multi-million dollar housing units, which he claimed were being given to party supporters and family members. He also wants Mitchell to disclose “all the occupants on RTO arrangements.”
Mitchell said the programme was introduced in 2006 and is the “same as all other units in the HDC.” He said on the open market anybody is allowed to apply and in RTO applicants are subject to the HDC selection criteria.
He also denied a newspaper report that Government Ministers Shamfa Cudjoe and Ayanna Webster-Roy, as well as Senate Vice President Nigel de Frietas have RTO agreements at Victoria Keys. He said 10 of the units have been reserved for government use and the three have been assigned units for when they are on duty in Trinidad. He said MPs from Tobago are given government housing in lieu of their housing allowance and all three will be made to vacate such accommodation when their tenures end. Moonilal admitted this policy for Tobago MPs pre-dated his time.
Previously Tobago MPS were housed at Federation Villas or Flagstaff, but Mitchell said units allocated at Federation Villas and Flagstaff are in need of repair so they decided to house MPs and their families at the Victoria Keyes units allocated for Government use.
On another note, Moonilal said it is strange Mitchell is now talking about rent to own because months ago when he asked the question about “military leaders of the country who were facilitated by way of direct payments and one by mortgage, at that time they did not tell us anything about rent to own... How much do people pay a month? How exactly do they qualify?” he asked.
But Mitchell said Moonilal has questions of his own to answer over the rise in the cost of the Victoria Keys project.
“Who gave the approval for the escalation of those costs?” Mitchell asked.
Asked why the project cost escalated, Mitchell said Victoria Keys was a “stalled project we inherited” along with several others, including Edinburgh Towers. He spoke to engineering, contractor and design problems, in addition to the fact that the area was also “crime infested.”