Thomas says Government wasted US$5 million in materials for housing displaced Point residents

Alister Thomas, the United Progressive Party (UPP) caretaker for St.
John’s City West, says it is wicked and heartless that 13 million in
taxpayers’ dollars has been wasted – in a failed effort to build
temporary housing for Booby Alley residents.

At present, the building materials sit, abandoned, on plots of land in
the Yorks and Villa areas.

Allegedly, the Gaston Browne Administration had obtained US$5
million (or EC$13 million) from the Treasury to construct prefab
homes for some of the displaced residents of Booby Alley in The
Point.

The residents were being forced to move in order to facilitate the
construction of apartments on the land they had occupied for
decades.

This project, which is yet to get underway properly, was to be
undertaken by the Chinese.

In the meantime, the Booby Alley residents were to live in
temporary homes constructed on various plots of vacant land in the
Villa area.

Several homes were constructed along Bay Street and at another
location in Villa with the prefab materials.

However, a large quantity of the materials has been abandoned, or,
as Thomas says, dumped at lower Fort Road.

According to Thomas, this is the current situation while the Booby
Alley residents are frustrated and homeless.

At the same time, Thomas claims, many of the former Point
residents have been evicted from the temporary rental properties in
which they were placed since the Gaston Browne Administration
has failed to pay the rent to the landlords.

The UPP caretaker visited the site of the abandoned materials and
made a two-minute video showing the state of the area.
The prefab materials are being overrun by bushes and sit in
scattered piles at the location. Some of the metal frames have visible
rusting on them.

Meanwhile, some area residents have complained that the
abandoned materials are becoming a breeding ground for rodents.