On the topic of SQUATTERS in Trinidad & Tobago

[janfar]

This has been a much debated topic of late with many different opinions on how to alleviate the situation. Not only is squatting illegal but it also directly contributes to flooding as discussed in previous topics. In addition to this most criminals and lowly educated persons emerge from areas such as these.

How would you LEGALLY deal with a situation such as this.

[De Dragon]

How would/should anyone deal with trespassers? TDTFO-Throw Them the Fack Out! I know some bleeding heart/anti Gov't/squatting area dweller gonna come and say "iz poor pople" but, lawlessness is lawlessness. If you've been occupying a property for enough years to qualify for regularization, fine, if not TDTFO!

[civic minded]

i mean - i was thinking the same thing - most of the said victims that suffer alot from the floods are squatters by river banks and hillsides - Local Government need to move in and get these people away from these areas.
Another main contributer to the massive flooding right now - devastating drought we had and the hundreds of bush fires we had- the hillsides was bare with no vegetation so guess what happen with rains come.....
come dry season again - same cycle happens again. If people are that stupid and can't understand simple stuff - then they have to pay the price over and over again

[janfar]

Ok, so move then from their current locations, but put them where... on the streets. We all know that no government (ones wanting to have a long term in office) would do this. So whats the other options.

I would think provide cheaper homes and have them pay them off, both house and land. So they actually pay for what they will eventually own.

[civic minded]

well at least regularize it, move them from the river banks and move them more inland so that they don't get swept away from raging waters

[janfar]

Moving them will incur a cost... an unrepayable cost which taxpayers 'should not' have to bear the brunt of.

[buzz]

they are human beings as well and the reason for them squatting is that being able to afford a house and land is a dream of many that will never be realised. However, had our governments and planners did their jobs efficiently from long ago, Trinidadians would've been realising a better living experience in this country where housing, drainage and lots of other seemingly hard-to-come-by norms elsewhere, would have eliminated many of the frustrations evident today.

So again, the governments past and present, can appear to be the one's to blame and to make good on prior errors.

but michelle tucker does some good squatting i must say

[*$kїđž!™]

Heard TV 6 poll question- should the govt relocate squatters from the hillside?

I say NO!!!!

Why must they get free land while we have to work hard for it?
Also if they moving them from the hills where they gonna place them - Next door to me - HELL NO!!!!!

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

oh the irony

[*$kїđž!™]

Exactly pios -----Why does the squatters believe the govt has a right to give them a house?

Should I be thinking the same?

[Infamous]

I would think provide cheaper homes and have them pay them off, both house and land. So they actually pay for what they will eventually own.

I don't think this should even be considered. There are many people who have applied for government housing and are yet to get through. Some waiting years for a call and still can't get through. Why should the government give preference to illegal squatters to get housing when there are hardworking people who have been on the waiting list for years.

[bluespeed]

I would think provide cheaper homes and have them pay them off, both house and land. So they actually pay for what they will eventually own.

I don't think this should even be considered. There are many people who have applied for government housing and are yet to get through. Some waiting years for a call and still can't get through. Why should the government give preference to illegal squatters to get housing when there are hardworking people who have been on the waiting list for years.

I am one of those persons who waited years and still did not get a house.....

this is what happened..... When I joined the regiment in 1997 the D.F. applies for you to get government housing under the MIn. of National Security. well I officially left the Regiment in '07 and still did not get called....... finally I got a call in December' 09 for the interview, and when I went for the interview the officer told me i don't qualify any more for a house. I asked why, and she said I am no longer a Member of the DF......

[TriniVdub]

spay and neuter said squatters, then relocate them to the beetham

[Trini Hookah]

you really want more beethamites?

[TriniVdub]

you really want more beethamites?

yes, then thats when we implement phase 2

man kill all ah flecking dem. i done tell alyuh how to do it, poison ah setta kiss bread an crash a van in the beetham an wen the thief and them take it an eat it they dead

[sMASH]

^^ u cornfused me at the comma and then had me rofl at 2

[janfar]

I would think provide cheaper homes and have them pay them off, both house and land. So they actually pay for what they will eventually own.

I don't think this should even be considered. There are many people who have applied for government housing and are yet to get through. Some waiting years for a call and still can't get through. Why should the government give preference to illegal squatters to get housing when there are hardworking people who have been on the waiting list for years.

By cheaper i dont mean HDC standard (which is not high BTW). I mean some basic 2 bdroom boardhouses somewhere in the middle of Tabaquite. You would have them working as CEPEP does and a percentage of their salary goes to the house and land. A house worth say 60k... basic board knock up. Something like what they did in District 9...

[eurotuner]

man kill all ah flecking dem. i done tell alyuh how to do it, poison ah setta kiss bread an crash a van in the beetham an wen the thief and them take it an eat it they dead

[/quote]

this is bad, come onnnn maaaaaaaan

[De Dragon]

spade and neuter said squatters, then relocate them to the beetham

[De Dragon]

same ting i ed over

Well you didn't bold, so there!

[TriniVdub]

what allyuh laughin at, that was d trini slang choops

[d spike]

By cheaper i dont mean HDC standard (which is not high BTW). I mean some basic 2 bdroom boardhouses somewhere in the middle of Tabaquite. You would have them working as CEPEP does and a percentage of their salary goes to the house and land. A house worth say 60k... basic board knock up. Something like what they did in District 9...

I agree. Some very basic, no-frills package that will house them temporarily (sufficient enough to provide shelter, but no more - thus providing a form of motivation to get a more comfortable dwelling) as they work towards acquiring a new home... freeing these quarters for other would-be squatters in turn.
However, this idea isn't new. This was one of the ideas behind the "plannings" that we have. The same sort of "provide shelter plus a low level of discomfort = encourage home ownership" plan was attempted to clear out the slum areas. They didn't count on Trini resourcefulness, where our people would gladly give up considering a comfortable home, and make do with cramped discomfort, living under those conditions in perpetuity, using their income for bling instead of savings to acquire a home, thus giving rise to almost identical problems as the slums that they were meant to eradicate. Cheek by jowl poverty (self-inflicted?), high levels of irritability due to discomfort and density, plus a sense of disillusionment with the powers-that-be due to a short-sighted view of the present problem (is dem have we so), all provide stimulants to develop the "gang" culture and the problem of lawlessness on the whole.

...but it still remains the best proposal so far (though the tainted bread is a tempting idea )

[turbotommy]

these fackers cud more than buy house and land.... all the time they livin in breaking down board house and as government give them the land , yuh seeing mansion where them same ole house used to be....

[bluespeed]

these fackers cud more than buy house and land.... all the time they livin in breaking down board house and as government give them the land , yuh seeing mansion where them same ole house used to be....

bro, I told my wife the exact same thing.......notice on the highway after freeport on the south bound lane....the place what have the garbage & pump trucks....and the concrete place were all squatters......

And greedy East Indian businessmen are guilty of this too.....sending their workers out to squat and after some years...... boom!!! big ass business on the highways.

that's why the government has a big problem expanding the highways!

[d spike]

these fackers cud more than buy house and land.... all the time they livin in breaking down board house and as government give them the land , yuh seeing mansion where them same ole house used to be....

I'm not sure anyone is saying to GIVE them land... even if they are placed somewhere that they can eventually consider theirs, there should be some arrangement made for purchase/rent. When one considers the long-term national benefits of having properly planned/structured settlements as far as utilities/access/waste disposal/density/policing are concerned, it is all the same whether the government gets their payment from home-owners/renters right away, or when employment allows for such payments. Many of them will be attempting to be hired by the government, anyway... as someone else pointed out earlier, the people can enter contractual arrangements for part of their salaries to be taken as payment. (The government spends how much on "make-work" programmes? Well, a "make-home" programme, then...)

[*$kїđž!™]

So yet again they on TV demanding help/house one lady say she want to live abroad...

They could send them to Haiti perhaps

[nemisis]

So have some squatters setting up in an empty lot to the side and behind my house. In less than two weeks two ply wood houses have gone up. Now I know the lots are government land as the squatters that were there previously were relocated and given hdc houses. Less than a week after the construction of the first house finish we had a break in and a water pump was stolen and all connecting pipes broken. So what is the process to get these illegal settlers out?

[De Dragon]

Gas+Three Plumes........

[nemisis]

^^^ lol nah it works both ways, his house burn down all well and all but as we had words he may blame me and. Can assure you a Molotov in my yard hurts me more than kerosene will hurt his.

[nervewrecker]

pitbulls...