On the heels of police moving in at the Housing Development Corporation’s (HDC) Clifton Towers to evict illegal occupants, legal tenants are now urging HDC officials to relocate them because of the trauma and undue stress their children and families are under.
Three frustrated parents—a couple and a mother of two—yesterday protested outside the HDC’s Port-of-Spain head office in an attempt to get quick redress by HDC officials following last Thursday’s fiasco.
Residents claimed they have been bullied out of their apartments by “gang members” for the past two years and added that they had now reached the point of frustration. They appealed to the relevant authorities to post T&T Defence Force (TTDF) members at the site on a 24/7 basis so that law and order can be restored. The development consists of four towers—two of which are nine stories and two with seven stories.
Resident for the past seven years, Desrie Slinger-Griffith claimed after the police moved in and arrested illegal occupants at the towers last week she was badly beaten and blamed for being an informant.
“I have been living there for the past seven years…I am no informant but what I can say is that HDC have a list of all the legal occupants of the towers and also have a list of the illegal occupants who were evicted…I was beaten and scrambled by my neck on Thursday for being an informant and told to ride out, imagine that eh, to ride out of my legal apartment,” Slinger-Griffith said.
She added that since “thugs” moved into the towers, she has being having serious problems with her two children. Her 19-month-old baby constantly screams out in his sleep, while the attitude of her seven-year-old has changed drastically.
“My bigger son is not performing well at school since he left pre-school and it’s because of the unstable and disruptive environment he is in now. All this thuggery and loud music going on with profanities…it is having a negative effect on the children and nobody seems to care.”
Slinger-Griffith said her HDC contract had promised her that she would “live in comfort.”
“This is not what is happening. These people do not even respect the police and it is only the soldiers that can come in here and deal with them because they are afraid of the soldiers, not the police.”
Arnott Daniel and his wife, Natasha, said their only son, who is 12 years, is now being seen and treated by a psychiatrist.
“I must give Jack his jacket and the HDC. When I went to them about concerns about my son and how the environment has been affecting him with all the gunshots and thuggers, they assisted me in sending him to a psychiatrist. Now, the report from the psychiatrist was sent to HDC, but it seems as though there is a delay in a sign-off by Mr Lyons,” Daniel said.
“My son started to have palpitations of the heart and his mood changed from cool to disruptive. We found this very strange and the HDC assisted us in getting help for him, but with all these gunshots and bacchanal we want a relocation to somewhere peaceful soon.”
On Friday during an address to the nation, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley confirmed that some home owners were being chased out of their homes while others faced home invasion by people who had no respect for law and order at Clifton Towers.
Questions sent to HDC managing director Brent Lyons went unanswered up to last evening.