Prime Minister Rowley’s Remarks at the Mahogany Court Sod-Turning Ceremony

One of the things we have to understand is public policy – is that the government cannot and really should not undertake to build a house for every person who needs one. But everyone needs a place to call home and a place to have a shelter over your head. What the government of Trinidad and Tobago, a PNM government, is trying to do is to stay true to our longstanding fundamental philosophy in public policy and that is there is a significant role for the government to play with respect to expanding the housing stock.

There are a number of models which a person can pursue to put that roof over their head but in Trinidad and Tobago given our history, our geography, our economic circumstances, it has been the government of Trinidad and Tobago through public policy that has had the single largest effect on growing and expanding the housing stock in Trinidad and Tobago.

I must say that the success of that policy in increasing and making the housing stock available has in itself driven the process and has driven more people towards the government because when it appears as though no units are being built and the government would have withdrawn from that policy, the number of applicants decline. But once people see that the program is underway and units are being built and others are able to find that elusive dream of an affordable unit, they move towards the government’s program.