Photo: Gilroy Usher, Port Loyola Area Representative
The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing has been called out by the area representative for Port Loyola, Gilroy Usher, after the postponement of a home handover hat will leave one single mother in a leaking house for the holiday. Minister Julius Espat calls Usher’s claims”unreasonable.”
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Dec. 22. 2022
Whatever discord was possibly simmering beneath the surface in the relations between two members of the Cabinet —Hon. Gilroy Usher and Minister of Housing, Julius Espat — surged to the surface in a heated moment, when Usher, as he awaited the commencement of a ceremony yesterday for the handover of a starter home in his Port Loyola constituency, reportedly received a text message that notified him that no handover would be taking place on that day. After being informed that the homeowner, Apolinaria Choc,, a single mother, would instead be receiving the home on December 29, and while he stood in front of the home, festively adorned with blue balloons and flanked by white plastic chairs for the attendees at the event, Usher, probably without much contemplation of a possible fallout and probably stirred by embarrassment and disappointment, proceeded to engage in a rant about what he described as the Ministry of Housing’s exclusion of the Port Loyola constituency from the ongoing house-construction process that’s been taking place in the country. Notably, while he was speaking, ceremonies for the handover of two homes in other parts of the city were reportedly taking place.
The Port Loyola area representative, during his outburst, which took place as reporters stood nearby, called “on all those responsible to give completion of starter homes in Port Loyola an urgent priority”. He pointed out that after two years of the current administration, only the first starter home in the constituency has been completed and is to be handed over, while between four and five households have received homes in other divisions. He claimed that his remarks were not intended to be a criticism of the current government, but an appeal for the Ministry of Housing to “end the excuses”, and “ get the starter homes built for the people of Port Loyola”
Over 50 persons need starter homes in his division, Usher said, but he expressed his conviction that the apparent oversight by the Ministry of Housing, and its failure to give new homes so far to these Port Loyola residents will not affect his bid for re-election, since he’s “always been championing the cause of the people” — a suggestion that any hesitation on his part to publicly comment on the Ministry of Housing’s purported lack of action in Port Loyola would more likely diminish his prospects in the division.
“I’m saying publicly, Minister Espat, we thank you for the many homes that you’ve built throughout the country. Minister of Infrastructure, we thank you for the starter homes that you’ve built throughout the country, but it’s time that tremendous effort, serious effort made to deliver on the starter homes in the Port Loyola division, and we do not want the houses three months or a year before the election. People want their houses as quick as possible, just as the other divisions. The people are tired of living in shacks and thing. The people want to experience the promise in the PUP constitution of better housing for all Belizeans, and so let us move forward as a government and get the houses built for the people of Port Loyola. We are tired of excuses. It’s time for the government, for the Ministry of Infrastructure to work along with the people of Port Loyola, to get the starter homes built at a faster rate. We have the contractors, we have the lands; the lands are filled up, so what the continued excuse with the delay? At this rate, one starter home in 2 years; at this rate in 5 years you will only have 2 and a half starter homes,” Usher said.
But subsequent statements by Minister of Housing, Julius Espat, and the public relations manager in the Ministry, Marisa Alamilla have revealed what appears to have been a breakdown in communication between Usher and the Housing Ministry — with some messages that had been previously sent by the Ministry seemingly not being received by Minister Usher, and thus resulting in the fiasco yesterday morning,
According to Alamilla, following the final inspection of the home, the lead inspector had pointed to work that had yet to be done to the home to ensure it met the required standards before handover, and that information was relayed to the contractor recommended by Usher. “When I did the final inspection, I could not pass the house for handover, I informed the contractor that he needed to come back, our lead inspector, Mr Noel Harvey, informed the contractor of all the things that we needed to meet standard,” said Alamilla. Since that remedial work had not been done by the contractor in a timely fashion prior to the date scheduled for the handover, the ceremony was postponed, said Alamilla. Alamilla further indicated that the Ministry had informed personnel in Usher’s office (specifically, Usher’s point-person, his niece) while he was out of the country that there would be a postponement of the handover, and she provided 7News with screenshots of text messages that were sent on December 14 as proof.
Alamilla revealed a further complication that led to a breakdown in the process: the contractor who was to have done the remedial work did not carry out that work because he was engaged in another project— painting Usher’s home in preparation for the Christmas holiday. According to Alamilla, the contractor told them he could not abandon what he was doing for Usher to carry out the small remedial touches to the one-room starter home. “Since that is the situation and since the contractor apparently is friends with the Minister, we don’t get involved in that, we have to wait,” Alamilla told local media.
And without that remedial work, the Housing Ministry refused to hand over the home on the scheduled date. Alamilla explained the reason for that refusal:
“Honestly, my issue is more based on the fact that we must understand who we are building for. We are building for persons who have limited means. They cannot get into a house and then have to fix anything. Our Minister is cognizant of that, and so our Mnister imparts on us that we must deliver a certain quality so that we don’t give these people more stress. The idea is to relieve stress, not to give them stress, and I thought that if anybody would understand that, Honorable Usher, who leads a constituency of these very people, would understand why we need to meet a certain quality, why we need to — I would have been more than happy to hand over Ms. Apolinaria’s house this morning, but we cannot, she will be the same one to be dissatisfied with that,” she said.
Alamilla noted, “It’s just small remedial touches that we have come to take pride in. If the paint is not done properly, if the — any little thing that we see that is not up to standard, those are the little things, it’s not a lot of work. If his contractor would have left the Christmas painting, we could have handed over his house. And I told him that. I said, ‘your contractor has said he’s painting your house so can we…’. I was thinking he would have called his contractor and said, ‘leave my house and come finish this lady house’, but he didn’t do that. I can’t tell the man stop.”
Usher has lamented the fact, however, that he was notified yesterday morning that the ceremony was canceled and no prior indication before, Alamilla said that his daughter called her yesterday morning to say that someone had called to indicate that the handing over would take place. That person, however, was her uncle, and not a representative from the Ministry, Alamilla discovered.
“Her uncle can’t set a handing over. We set a handing over because we have to have a certain quality. So, all this snafu is out of Minister Usher’s camp,” Alamilla said in an interview with News5’s Marion Ali.
Alamilla also addressed claims made by Usher that point, beyond this particular handover postponement, to an overall prioritization by the Housing Ministry of other constituencies while the housing needs in Port Loyola are relegated to a lower tier in the agenda of the Ministry. Alamilla has insisted that this is not the case, and that the Housing Ministry has faced a number of roadblocks in the construction of houses for certain Port Loyola residents and has had to address those issues before proceeding with construction. Those issues have been primarily land-related, and to address them the Housing Ministry has had to carry out land-filling and verification of leases.
“All the houses that have been approved for building and for construction for Minister Usher are in swamp, and we have gone ahead and we have filled those properties with clay, and we are waiting for the clay to consolidate. Clay takes 6-9 months to consolidate. We have some of his homes earmarked for beginning of January to start because they have consolidated. We will put more loads of sand on them in the first week of January, and then we will wait a couple weeks and then we can start those homes, because we’ll bind the clay to start. One of the land, basically, we need to put 20 more loads, so we’ll have to wait until that consolidates again, so if I don’t do that, the houses will sink, we will get a bad reputation, Mr Usher’s going to get a bad reputation, and we can’t afford that,” Alamilla said.
“Some of the houses, when they were approved, they were approved on leases. We have to ensure that the leases still belong to those people, because as you well know, sometimes previous governments will cancel a lease and not inform the person, so the person thinks he own the lease and he doesn’t really, so I have to go into Lands, do all of that paperwork before I can even start to fill. They are well aware of all these problems we have,” she added.
Her statements were contrary to what Usher asserted. He had told reporters, “One of the excuse was that they said there was delay in people obtaining the title for their land, so I said, that has been addressed, the people have the title for their land. There was once the excuse that they had to fill the land; the land has been filled. All those has been filled, so what’s the excuse going forward? In terms of preparedness, our people have title for their land. Four of the lots have already been filled;;the persons who should received the starter homes are all employed. The residents of Port Loyola, are ready to experience the dream of better housing with the starter homes as the other residents in the other divisions.”
The Minister of Housing and Development, Julius Espat, after learning of Usher’s claims, told local reporters that he “understands and respects” that Usher is doing his job, but pointed out that he “does not understand the reality” the Ministry is facing. Espat, who insisted that there is no “bad blood” between the two members of Cabinet, further commented, “… you have to understand: when Hurricane Lisa came through, all the human resources from MIDH went into assist his people. He’s not mentioning that. He’s not mentioning that five of his residents will be given houses in January in Boom area because he doesn’t have any land in the Port Loyola. All of his requests for assistance and relief was accomplished, so I think he’s being a bit unfair, but you can’t change a man’s personality and I’ll leave it at that.”
“Gilroy was the first person that went publicly to say that the houses were too small and he didn’t want any house in the Port Loyola, and so what you want me to do? When you have unreasonable people, I can’t do much more for them, but I will continue with all that I have to assist his area,” Espat said.
The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing has indicated that they have terminated the contractor recommended by Usher and will have their personnel carry out the minor touches on Choc’s home. They estimate that by December 29 the home will be finished and handed over to Ms. Choc.