{"id":37767,"date":"2013-07-31T10:09:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T14:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=37767"},"modified":"2013-07-31T10:09:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T14:09:55","slug":"shantytown-landowners-could-face-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/07\/shantytown-landowners-could-face-penalties","title":{"rendered":"Shantytown Landowners \u2018Could Face Penalties\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Elizabeth MP Ryan Pinder said people who own the land off Joe Farrington Road on which a shantytown was built, could face penalties if they do not soon comply with a government order to bring the area up to housing and environmental standards.<\/p>\n

Many houses in that shantytown were destroyed by fire last week.<\/p>\n

Pinder said the landowners have already received notices of violation of building codes and utility connections, and he thinks the date for addressing these infractions has passed.<\/p>\n

He said the landowners could face enforcement proceedings, fines or the government could remove the structures in question.<\/p>\n

Pinder said while he knows the identities of the landlords, whom he said live in his constituency, he does not think it was his place to reveal their names.<\/p>\n

Last week, attorney John Bostwick II said the landowners will not allow people displaced by the fire to rebuild.<\/p>\n

Bostwick said his clients are \u201ceager\u201d to assist the government in enforcing the health and environmental compliance request.<\/p>\n

According to the National Emergency Management Agency, more than 100 people were left homeless and at least 30 homes were destroyed in the blaze.<\/p>\n

An estimated 400 people live in the community, according to government officials.<\/p>\n

Some residents of the area said yesterday they are jobless, penniless and have no means to return home to Haiti, but would go if their travel expenses were paid for.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment financing of repatriation efforts is for those who have been detained here illegally and against the immigration laws,\u201d Pinder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be out of the ordinary for government to finance voluntary travel back home for somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel Pierre, who claimed he was born in The Bahamas and lived in the shantytown, said at least three residents have left for Haiti since the fire.<\/p>\n

He said more are ready to go, but cannot afford to. \u201cThey are willing to go back because if they are not working, what are they going to do?\u201d Pierre asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are they going to find the money to pay the apartment to live? They can\u2019t stay on the street. They are willing to go back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the meeting we had the other day with the Haitian ambassador, some of them are willing to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pierre said the residents were told on June 19 through a notice from the landowners that they had 30 days to vacate the area.<\/p>\n

He said while the residents know they have to leave, many have no place to sleep, except for emergency shelters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got no choice, we got to move because this is a private property, when the owner says move you got to move,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pinder said he has collected items for the fire victims and will hand them over to the Haitian ambassador for distribution.<\/p>\n

By Taneka Thompson
\nGuardian Senior Reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth MP Ryan Pinder said people who own the land off Joe Farrington Road could face penalties if they do not soon comply with a government order to bring the area up to housing and environmental standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[302,1920,1844],"class_list":["post-37767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-fire","tag-joe-farrington-road","tag-shantytown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}