Lack of affordable houses in Port of Spain

Photo 7 shows one of the few housing stock designated for low income persons within Nelson Street, Port of Spain.

Lack of Affordable Houses

According to Trinidad and Tobago’s 2011 demographic report, the city of Port of Spain has 307 persons who are street dwellers. This gives evidence of the manifestation of housing affordability problems in Port of Spain (Hall and Barrett 2012, 276). The adequate provision of low income houses in Port of Spain remains a key challenge for the local state, private sector and community in general. Majority of the locals within the city are either unemployed or have low paying jobs. Therefore, it is very difficult for many to access affordable houses and even some of these houses (shown in photo 7) that are provided by the local state because of their financial status. As a result, some have responded to the situation by living in the streets or squatting.

Another reason for the lack of affordable houses in many urban areas can be explained by the changing role of the state in housing supply (Hall and Barrett 2012, 275). In recent time, there has been a diminishing role in the government providing houses. As a result, the private sector has caused the prices of houses and apartments to escalate drastically and thus increased the number of people who cannot afford houses, such as middle-income persons.

As mentioned earlier providing adequate affordable houses for local residents is a challenge. However, if financially feasible, a greater involvement of the local state is needed in order to reduce the cost of house prices so that the least of the urban dweller can benefit. Also, the involvement of more charitable organizations should be encouraged to aid with the responsibility of providing low income houses in Port of Spain and the wider urban areas of the nation.

References

Hall, Tim, and Heather Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography 4^th edition. London and New York: Routledge.

Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development. 2012. “Trinidad and Tobago 2011 Population and Housing Census Demographic Report.” Accessed 24, 2013. http://www.cso.gov.tt.