Omar Ottley
PHILIPSBURG--Civil engineer and #3 candidate on United People (UP) party’s slate in the upcoming snap Parliamentary election Omar Ottley said on Monday that he lamented the thought of forty families being made homeless and called on government to step in before November 30 to prevent this from happening.
He said that after Hurricane Irma these families were fortunate to receive assistance and live in a shelter in Sucker Garden. “The shelter was a temporary solution until space in government housing was available for them. It has been two years and no government house has been delivered and these persons, unfortunately, have five days to vacate the property,” said Ottley.
He added that the owner of the property has the right to do as they please once the contract is up, “but the responsibility of these families, which also included children from two to five years of age, falls on the government of St. Maarten.”
He said Dr. J Foundation had raised funds to fix eight emergency homes in Cole Bay that fall under St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) to house some of the families. Ottley said persons who were housed at the same location before Hurricane Irma had moved back to Belvedere. According to him, this freed up a couple of three-bedroom homes.
“Dutch law prohibits boys and girls to share a room. So, they put a video out on social media asking for assistance to fix these homes in Cole Bay. The video attracted the attention of the World Bank, who asked why would donations be sought when it had already made 550 thousand guilders available to the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) to repair the homes.
“After some back-and-forth, the SMHDF has reportedly now pulled back its decision to offer the homes to the families and the families have to leave the shelter on November 30. This is a main example of the real issues being neglected in our country. All these people are about to be homeless and we have yet to hear anyone speak on it.
“I would like government to know that it is a constitutional right to protect these young [children – Ed.]. So please step in before November 30,” said Ottley.
