HOUSING Minister Donald Buchanan recently presented titles to 60 of the 214 people presently occupying government units in phase 7 of Arnett Gardens, and their member of parliament, Finance Minister Omar Davies, immediately warned them to move quickly to regularise their water and electricity connections.

“Remember now, we cannot say we are stepping up in life as holders of house titles and still be carrying on with the old practice of illegal connections,” Davies commented.

The South St Andrew MP, who initiated the formalising of the residents’ tenure at the Mexico, Phase 7 housing scheme, was speaking at the Avon Park Community Centre where the titles were issued.

In fact, along with their sales agreement and copy titles, the homeowners were handed letters from the Ministry of Water and Housing to take to the National Water Commission and the Jamaica Public Service Company to regularise their utility payments.

“The Government is firm in its position that the illegal use of all utilities should be brought to an end,” Buchanan also reminded them.

The Mexico Phase 7 scheme consists of 274 residential townhouses, which many occupants abandoned during the turbulent political climate of the ’70s, when regular battles between politically aligned warring communities were the order of the day.

As a result, most of the units were vandalised; toilet facilities ripped out, structures torn down and other physical amenities deteriorated with time.

The units were originally started by the JLP government in 1970. The housing ministry has since embarked on a programme of divesting units in certain schemes to their occupants, thereby providing the purchasers with security of tenure, Buchanan explained.

The schemes targeted are Duhaney Park, Majesty Gardens, Tavares Gardens, and Brooklyn, Texas, Mexico and Pegasus in Arnett Gardens.

“The greatest concentration of these are in the Corporate Area,” Buchanan explained. “Occupants have lived in these units for upwards of 25 years, without enjoying the benefits of security of tenure and also without fulfilling their obligations to pay maintenance fees and other costs.” He said the occupants of the Mexico Phase 7 scheme were required to pay $30,000 for the units. However to date, only 60 of the 214 occupants have completed payments. Buchanan said 105 occupants have paid $15,000 and over, 98 occupants have paid under 15,000, while 11 occupants had not yet responded.

It was these 60 people who were presented with titles.

The minister was also quick to point out that a number of factors were recognised in setting the price tag at $30,000.

“The occupants’ efforts in repairing and restoring the units, which were severely vandalised and the fact that they repaired them many years ago and wanted to purchase them, but were not given the opportunity to do so, were all pricing factors,” Buchanan explained.

Davies had high praise for the 60 residents who received titles on the basis of their completing their payment of purchase price and legal fees.

“I want the social engineering that is now taking place in Arnett Gardens to be a model for other communities to follow,” he said. “Not only in the putting up of concrete and steel, but in reducing violence in the community, caring for the elderly, the cooling of tensions between Rema and Arnett Gardens and the extensive refurbishing of the Tony Spaulding Sport Complex in the community,” the minister added.