SQUATTERS at Anna Catherina/Edinburg, West Coast of Demerara, whose homes were destroyed last Friday, were engaged by officials from the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and issued warnings six times since January 2019.

CH&PA Head of Enforcement and Investigation, Lester Kitt, explained that when the authority first visited the area and engaged the squatters in January 2019, only two structures existed but last Friday, eight were there.

“We engaged them on numerous occasions and served notices on each occasion to stop. Seven times we engaged them, we talked six times and the seventh time is when we did the demolition,” Kitt explained.

The particular area in question is a stretch of land at the edge of a trench where the villages of Anna Catherina and Edinburg border each other, just across the street from the National Track and Field Centre. The squatters first began building in December 2018 and were shortly after told to stop.

“During the month of December (2018), we heard that persons were invading a particular government land by Edinburg opposite the Track and Field Centre. On the 23 January [2019], we engaged them first, we spoke with like about 40 persons. At that time there was one structure with a frame while the other wasn’t a frame as yet. So we talk to them and told them to desist from squatting, we have pictures where they were clearing the bushes and burning bushes, we have pictures of that,” Kitt noted.

After the initial visit, the CH&PA team continued to follow up on the situation.
“On the February 5, 2019, we went back and the one structure continued to go up and while some persons stopped the cutting of the bush, some continued,” Kitt said.
“It had some persons in the group saying they’re not moving until the government finds land for them. We advised them to follow up with applications that they have at the CH&PA.”

As the persons continued to build, others felt encouraged to join in and the number of squatters continued to increase. The CH&PA felt it was out of options. Kitt noted the decision to destroy the structures was also driven by the fact that there was no one living in them. Persons living in their structures were given time to demolish their homes themselves and move.

EMPTY HOUSES
“At least you would think that they would’ve gone and occupied the structure but nobody was living [there]. We demolished six structures and left two persons who are occupying their structures, we told them that they had up to Monday gone to cease. The two persons, why we leave them was because they have children,” Kitt said.

Fifty-four-year old Radicka Singh is one of the squatters who admitted that she decided to build after she saw others putting up structures at the area. At the time, she was struggling to pay her rent after it was increased from $25,000 to $30,000. She was renting in Leonora at the time.

“When they raise it to $30,000, it becomes very hard. I can’t even send my daughter to school. So I see people building and I seh leh I tek a chance and see if I can build,” Singh explained.

Singh said she spent some $195,000 on materials and paid someone to erect the structure. She resides at the home with her 26-year-old and 13-year-old daughters, and two grandchildren who are nine and six months old.

The mother said she is willing to comply with the order to move and has since been able to secure another place to rent. She has already packed up her belongings and is awaiting word to move into the new home. She refuted claims that the CH&PA violently approached the squatters.

“When this gentleman [Kitt] come here, he didn’t come and harass nobody yuh know,” she informed, adding: “He tell them they had to move and that was it. He didn’t come violently. And I beg him to let me stay and I tell him that we moving.”
Singh said she does not work full-time but would do occasional domestic work.
She takes care of her grandchildren while her elder daughter works as a waitress.
Neither the woman nor her daughter have applied for land from the CH&PA but plan to do so eventually.

“No, I never applied for land ‘cause I am of my age [that] I cannot afford so my daughter [will apply], but after she did not get an ID card, she did not get to apply. She got to go [to get her ID card] but finances is not here presently now [for her] to go and apply for the ID card,” Singh said.