62.7 MILLION ALLOCATED TO POST-DISASTER HOUSING
Government has allocated an unprecedented 62.7 million dollars to housing in the 2025 budget, most of which will go directly towards the construction of houses for those people affected by Hurricane Beryl.
Approximately 1-thousand homes are expected to be constructed in a 12-month period and will comprise a mixture of pre-fabricated houses and traditional brick and mortar houses.
“First, recognising the existing capacity constraints among contractors, we will rely on the supply of prefabricated homes for more than half of our 1,000-home ambition,” Minister of Finance Hon. Camillo Gonsalves explained, as he presented the 2025 Budget on Monday.
The Minister said the Trinidadian company Steel Framed Engineered Solutions Ltd. has been contracted to supply up to 50 prefabricated two- and three-bedroom homes per month over six months to accelerate the rebuilding effort, while additional prefabricated homes will be sought from Guyana, through an extension of the existing partnership with Demerara Bank Ltd.
“We anticipate receiving the first 50 prefabricated homes from Trinidad in March while the tendering and bidding process for the construction of concrete homes will begin around the same time,” Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves added that the government plans to construct 400 houses through the Housing and Land Development Corporation (HLDC), using traditional brick-and-mortar methods.
Government has repaired 2,500 homes since July 1, 2024.
