By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

AS the July 31 eviction deadline approaches, some 500 residents are believed to remain in shanty towns set for demolition in the capital, The Tribune was told.

Meanwhile, Labour Minister Dion Foulkes yesterday confirmed the government was on track with its eviction deadline for shanty town residents.

Haitian Pastors League President Dr Jean Paul Charles told The Tribune about half of the residents in the ten shanty towns surveyed by the government have relocated, but there was still a sizeable population that remained who would likely need assistance.

“A good number of them have already moved out and found another place to rent,” he said. “But there are some people still in the village, and we encourage them and we tell them they have to move out.

“It does seem at this time the government is not willing to do anything, they said they would, but nothing yet. We also formed a committee but it’s only so much we can do ourselves, it’s too heavy for the church to carry.”

Dr Charles said: “Around 500 (remain), I don’t want to say all of them need assistance but the majority of those that stay, they are unable to get another place. Some of them are (able to move), you know some people will try to stay to see what will happen as they’ve been living there for so long.”

Dr Charles told The Tribune his group continues to visit shanty towns to advise people of the deadline and provide assistance.

“The way of living there is not humane, but I think Bahamian people have compassion to help people move out to live in a better condition,” he said, adding the league has made suggestions to the government to render assistance to displaced shanty town residents; however, there has been no commitment to offer rental assistance.

“If they can help them maybe pay a couple months for them, or first and last so they can get set up. That’s what we are asking the government,” Dr Charles said.

“We said that before but the minister for labour said he would look into it but they will try.”

When the July 31 deadline was announced, human rights group Rights Bahamas said it now had evidence to take “constitutional action” against the government over the timeline mandating the eviction of shanty town residents, arguing the decision was discriminatory.

At the time, RB president Stephanie St Fleur branded the move “ethnic cleansing” saying it contravened certain articles of the Bahamas Constitution.

Yesterday, Ms St Fleur said the groups’ concerns over the eviction timeline remain.

Ms St Fleur said: “The basic concern is those who aren’t employed, then some of mothers said they were looking for places but no places want to rent to persons with more than two young kids.

“Some of them are looking to move but nobody wants to rent to them,” she added, “and then majority of them who aren’t working”.

Mr Foulkes, who is chairman of the Shanty Town Action Task Force, told media outside Cabinet the task force has met with five landowners with no expectation of extending that deadline.

“There’s no problems that we encounter,” he said, “or that we see coming up that will cause us to change the July 31 date for the shanty town removals. All of the timelines that we have, most of them are internal, we’ve met them all.

“We’ve met with five (land owners), two of them we cannot locate. I don’t know whether they are in the jurisdiction or not but we have so far spoken to five of them and they are cooperating with us.”

Mr Foulkes said failure to contact the remaining two will not have an impact on the removal exercise as officials will be acting in accordance with the building code.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, “we will comply with the laws of the Bahamas namely the Town Planning Act that mandates certain things must happen with unregulated structures.”

The government’s survey was conducted in ten shanty towns over a four-week period from Elizabeth, Carmichael (Garden Hills), and Golden Isles constituencies, and with the help of 60 enumerators from various governmental agencies.

The populations of the communities are: Montgomery Avenue, 115 residents; Allen Drive; 28 residents; Bellot Road; 10; Golden Gates Road, 291 residents; Lazaretto Road, 56 residents; Cowpen Road (west), 165 residents; Bacardi Road east, 39 residents, and west, 96 residents; and Lumumba Lane, 160 residents. The report also included 27 residents who participated but were not categorised by location.