Around nine on Monday night three families all residing at 7005 Antelope Street Extension were enjoying a game of dominoes when suddenly the house collapsed. The heavy rains that came the following morning the heavy rain did not help as water poured through the cracks that were caused when the building hit the ground. The residents admit that when they moved in about five months ago a family relative who owns the property allowed them to move in to the home because they had nowhere else to stay but did caution them that the building’s posts needed to be replaced and other repairs needed to be done.
On Tuesday when 7News visited the residence the family told us that they had no choice to move in to the dilapidated home because they had become frustrated after their cries for help to Minister of Housing Michael Finnegan had fallen on deaf ears. Well today 7News caught up with the Area Representative for the Mesopotamia division as he attended the short ceremony for the official handing over of the new home on Benbow Street to Arleen Banner.
According to Michael Finnegan although he is the Minister of Housing and he empathizes with the family on Antelope Street Extension he is not the one to help them. Finnegan says as he has repeatedly stated since the Venezuela housing programme came into effect, there is a procedure that families in need should follow and it includes getting in contact with their area representative. In this case, the family should have contacted Minister Patrick Faber and he is very certain that if they had done so they would have already received the help they needed.
Hon. Michael Finnegan, Minister of Housing
“There is one money in the Ministry of Housing for housing and that is the Venezuelan funds which is for the poorest of the poor. We say it over and over, that lady doesn’t need to see me. That lady needs to see her Area Representative who has the same amount of money which I have in the same pool. My money is for Mesopotamia voters. I just happen to be the Minister of Housing. But I am repeating again, only the Venezuelan money we have that is operational. That money in divided equally among all the divisions in the country. She needs to see her area representative and not the Minister of Housing because she won’t get my money which is for Mesopotamia people. She has to get the money that is allocated for Collet Division and the only person that can authorize spending of that money is the good Minister of Education and I know if she sees the good Minister of Education, the good Minister of Education will help her.
Now when the regional committee makes recommendations to spend the money from the different regions, now me as the Minister of Housing, as the Prime Minister said, I have jurisdiction to make sure that the money is properly spent and spent on what it was authorized for. I can’t spend Collet money, Albert money, Freetown money, Lake I money - only Mesop money so left mi lone and then I repeat it over and over only Venezuelan money we have right now. If you have a housing problem, you have to go to your Area Representative.
I wouldn’t want to use the word sympathize, I think the word is more empathize. In order words I di feel along with her. I am not sympathizing I am empathizing with this lady but the lady has got to follow the protocol or the procedure set out by the government.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“Just go and see her area representative.”
Hon. Michael Finnegan,
“There is one money and she needs to see her area representative. I can’t spend Faber’s money and I have a thousand and one people behind my back out of Mesopotamia for my little money which they gave me too.”
Housing Minister Finnegan told us that that last year a house was given to Kendra Polanco’s mother in Mahogany Heights.
