by TREVOR YEARWOOD

A $50 MILLION SOLUTION for squatting!

This is what Government's Advisor on Poverty Eradication, Hamilton Lashley, proposed yesterday.

"We can start with a $50 million allocation to tackle the problem," he said during an interview in his Garrison, St Michael office.

The money, according to him, could cover basic services for land to which squatters all across Barbados would be moved.

They would be relocated from Zone 1 water areas and districts in the flight path of aircraft.

It could also cover repairs and upgrades to some of the makeshift shelters and the cost of a mini sewage treatment plant for residents of The Belle, St Michael – if the Government deemed this necessary.

But a large chunk of the package would finance a major initiative to create "low-income housing solutions" and a housing programme specially for the "poorest of the poor". That programme would include making more rental units available, Lashley said.

The funds would help agencies like the Rural Development Commission, Urban Development Commission and National Housing Corporation accelerate their loan and home-building and repair programmes, he reasoned.

Such projects were important if more people were not to slide into squatting, against the background of spiralling land prices and a scarcity of low income housing, the former Minister of Social Transformation argued.

"Let us settle the problem of squatting once and for all," he urged. "Let us look at the root causes, what factors force people to squat . . . and come up with a comprehensive plan, a holistic plan (to deal with) squatting."

Lashley admitted he was against squatting, but said that rather than "toss" people off land they have occupied, in some instances for over a decade, Government needed to investigate each individual case and look for "humane solutions".

*trevoryearwood @nationnews.com