BY SHEENA FORDE-CRAIGG | OCT 19, 2022
Twelve “transition houses”, being built at Haggatt Hall, St. Michael, are making “great progress” towards the expected year-end completion timeline.
This is according to Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for coordinating infrastructural projects, Dr. William Duguid, who was speaking during a press conference today.
He disclosed that the construction of the three-block quads, each housing four units, began in July 2022, and are for persons currently living at the Barbados Workers’ Union College, whose houses were destroyed and damaged as a result of Hurricane Elsa and the “freak” storm last year.
Minister Duguid explained: “We recognise from the beginning that we would have some people who would have challenges with land. So, … as we designed the programme, we’ve added in these housing solutions on government land for those people who have difficulty building back their house because they had difficulties with land, because the landlord had not given them permission to rebuild, and all sorts of things like that. So, we recognise from the beginning that that could be an issue.”
The Senior Minister pointed out that five persons from the Barbados Construction Gateway Training Initiative are a part of the crew working on constructing the quads.
“We’ve also partnered with the construction gateway programme, and we have young people who are also being trained in how to do this new kind of technology, how to put together the steel frames, how to do the drywall, how to be able to plaster drywall and make the joints of drywall.
“So, it’s not only a siloed approach to government; it is bringing all of the various players of government. Ministry of Education whose construction gateway it is; the opportunities for the Ministry of Housing, opportunities for the Member of Parliament, all working together to benefit and for partnering for the people of Barbados,” the Senior Minister stated.
He further added in addition to the single houses built on people’s land, Government is also building quads and in the near future duplexes on land that is owned by the Government. This programme provides an outlet for displaced persons to be housed.
Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance, Dwight Sutherland, shared how many houses would be built on the site overall. “We have another three quads to be built just on the western side of where we are standing, and three quads plus a single unit, and that would give us 13 units to add to the actual 12 that we have here. So, you have some 25 units that will be built in this location in Haggatt Hall,” Minister Sutherland said.
