NOT EVERY TENANT who has lived in National Housing Corporation (NHC) units for over 20 years will get those units free of cost.

This was revealed yesterday by Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley, who, in her reply to the 2008 Budgetary Proposals, noted there were situations where people had resided in units for 20 to 35 years but their names were not on official records as tenants.

Instead, she added, names of other relatives might have been recorded, while those now seeking to have the units free might only have had them transferred in their names within the last ten years.

According to Mottley, these people would not benefit from Government's plan to transfer units freely to those residing in them for over 20 years; neither would tenants who had paid deposits to the NHC last year.

Fundamentally wrong

She explained that those who had paid deposits last year would not be refunded, neither would they qualify to get their units free; while those who came afterwards would acquire free units. This, she emphasised, was fundamentally wrong.

"I will give way to the Minister of Housing if he says that the Cabinet of Barbados did not make a decision that those refunds are not to be given back to those people who paid them in good faith, and some even paid in full," she said.

Mottley said the Opposition would be happy for those who got free units, but "we have a serious problem and will hold Government accountable for the discrimination that it is practising by saying that tenants of those NHC units who paid deposits last year are not to be refunded their deposits, and will not get their houses free of charge".

She also challenged Minister of Housing Michael Lashley to tell the public whether or not Cabinet had decided that the offer should run from January 16 to April 13 – 100 days – and that those qualifying for the 20-year limit after April 13 would not benefit.

Turning directly to the minister, she said: "Don't worry about me, because Plastic Bag, who is your cousin, tell you all eyes are on you. I want to know now whether you as the member for St Philip North will preside over a situation where your constituents in Church Village who will not benefit until 2011, having moved into those units in 1990 and 1991, will be deprived of getting free units."

The Opposition Leader, in substantiating her view that the NHC units would not all be transferred free of charge, also read Page 42 of a letter from a resident, which noted that "on behalf of my family and myself, I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for giving us the opportunity to purchase my home in which I have been living for 43 years".

"What a tangled web we weave!," added Mottley. "Why would a woman who would be entitled to a free house after 20 years write the Prime Minister and thank him for giving her the opportunity to buy what he said he gave her free of charge?" (RJ)