Nearly 500 families have received homes through the first two phases of the government’s latest housing initiatives, while thousands of long-term National Housing Corporation tenants await the legal transfer of the properties they occupy, the NHC has said.
In a brief interview on the rollout of state housing programmes, NHC General Manager Ian Gill addressed questions about property distributions, maintenance issues and the status of long-standing residential conveyance plans.
According to Gill, allocation numbers for the initial distribution phases show progress in providing housing.
In May, Parliament passed the State (Acquisition and Vesting of Property) Act, under which some 3 892 long-term tenants of NHC units are set to become homeowners. The legislation removes years of administrative delays, a move senators welcomed as a long-overdue measure with transformative social impact.
The housing estates under the bill are Deacons Farm, Grazettes, Fernihurst, Wildey, Bonnetts, Golden Acre, Silver Hill, Gall Hill and Wotton.
“In the first and second batch, just under five hundred families would have received their homes,” Gill said, clarifying the scope of the completed distributions to date.
Gill’s comments come amid wider discussion about the legal transfer of public housing units to long-term tenants. Under the Twenty-Year Programme, residents who have occupied NHC rental properties for two decades or more and met the requisite criteria are to receive full legal ownership of their homes.
Gill also addressed enquiries from residents in such areas as Deacons Farm, who have been waiting for formal ownership documents and conveyance letters.
The lack of title deeds has left families unable to use their assets for financial security or property development.
One long-standing resident explained that the uncertainty surrounding land ownership has persisted for well over ten years, despite repeated visits from state officials.
The resident said: “This is over ten years or more, and we are still waiting. Every time the government changes, you get an engineer coming around checking, measuring this and measuring that, but still we are waiting.”
The absence of official documentation has created serious practical barriers for residents attempting to access banking services or finalise family inheritances. The resident detailed her personal experience following her mother’s death, noting that authorities required legal proof of occupancy despite her lifelong residence in the home.
She said: “You cannot go into a bank and say you want 40 cents if you have not got the papers they can give you. When my mother got the keys for this house, she put them in my hand. I was the first one to open this door, and to this day I am still waiting for papers.”
Another resident pointed to a recurring pattern of unfulfilled pledges during political campaign periods. According to residents, candidates routinely promise title deeds in exchange for votes, only for the process to stall after elections.
“When election time comes, they bring a piece of paper telling you that they will give it to you after the election in a couple of weeks or months, but it never happens,” he said. “It is empty promises, and that has been going on for four or five elections now. Every time management changes at National Housing, they tell you that you have got to do something new”
But Gill sought to reassure residents that the administrative process was underway, although he noted that legal transfers required careful administrative oversight.
“Everybody across Barbados who has been approved under the twenty-year programme will eventually receive the accommodation, their houses,” Gill said. “Whatever the legislation states, they will receive their houses. It is only a matter of time. Everything takes time, especially where legal work is concerned.”
The NHC general manager was also asked to address residents’ concerns about the Grotto housing complex, but he declined to comment and instead offered Barbados TODAY the opportunity to visit the complex to see what was happening.
When Barbados TODAY visited the complex, two cranes on site were cutting trees on the property. A resident said they were told the work was part of a major beautification exercise, during which the buildings are expected to be power-washed and repainted and the surroundings cleaned.
(RR)
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