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Th gov't is currently building houses for disaster victims. (Photo: Lance Neverson/Facebook)
Th gov’t is currently building houses for disaster victims. (Photo: Lance Neverson/Facebook)

The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will build one-bedroom, self-contained wooden apartment for “poor, economically disadvantaged, or indigent persons with striking mental or physical disabilities”.

“These houses will be one-bedroom self-contained apartments: bedroom, bath and toilet, kitchenette, dining area and living room,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told a press briefing this week.

“They will have a wall (concrete) base and plywood superstructure. Plumbing and electrical wiring, with galvanise roof. The approximate cost will be about 27,000 dollars each. We expect these will be built on existing family lands,” said Gonsalves, who is also Minister of Finance.

Gonsalves said there are a number of elderly Vincentians who have had amputations of their limbs (sometime both legs) as a result of diabetes, or who, from birth, had a physical or mental challenge.

“… some of them are integrated in families, but some families keep them as though they are in the shadows,” he said.

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He said a wooden house, well cared for, can last 20 years.

“I do a hundred first, then I do a second hundred, the Ministry of Social Development is working with the Ministry of Housing giving the whole list of names,” he said.

Gonsalves said the government had taken note of the needs of these persons, under its “Lives to Live” programme, which was conducted in conjunction with Cuba.

Late former president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez was interested in providing some money, “but then he got sick, died and that went on the backburner,” Gonsalves said.

“But we have to do things for ourselves; put up the little ramp on these houses, build them across the country,” he said, adding that Jamaican firm, Tankwell, which has offered the government building material on credit in the past, is also willing to supply material under similar arrangements for the project.

The government is currently building houses for victims of the Christmas Eve disaster, which left extensive damage to the housing stock in some areas of the country.

6 replies on “Gov’t to build wooden houses for disabled citizens”

  1. Here We Go Again says:

    The government announcements are getting more and more vague, an obvious deliberate effort no to give any information that can be independently verified.

    “We expect these will be built on existing family lands” – So there is a commitment to build 100 homes but not sure exactly where they will be going just yet.

    Wouldn’t the wise thing be to construct them clusters, say by constituency, so the healthcare and elderly care be centralized? Doctors and nurses could do more efficient weekly visits. Guess we don’t think that far ahead.

  2. Another Socialist attack on the traditional Vincentian family by Big Brother. Destroy family networks and replace them with dependency on the State. A really great way to get votes from the poor.

  3. Santa Claus real ‘busy’ JUST PRIOR TO the impending plebiscite.

    Ho ho ho – – – Santa […] Ralphie.

  4. One bedroom for disabled?, who will be looking after them and where will that person sleep?. As usual, talk talk talk and no plans. Here’s the excuse when no house can be seen, “We expect these will be built on existing family lands,”. We know this will be a ‘come n see me’ and when none is built for genuine recipients we will hear ‘nobody ask’. House fo vote agen?.

  5. Doesn’t stack up sounds very much to me like another Gonsalves lie. There is no mention of the houses being free. If you build government houses on family land they must become the property of the family.

    Seeing as a price is quoted I just wonder if he expects the family to pay for the house?

    Really poor people don’t own land, they tend to squat on government land. Really poor people cannot afford to pay rent and certainly not pay a mortgage of any amount whatsoever.

    With the election around the corner we can expect more and more silly statements designed to fool the poor and ignorant.

    One thing that we should consider is that the $250,000 a person promised to everyone for their share of the reparations money, should mean we can all apply for a wooden house.

    Folks don’t be conned by this desperate Marxist led government, don’t believe a word of it.

    Once Cuba and Venezuela are mentioned we should all run in the opposite direction, the lie now becomes an international conspiracy to fool us.

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