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What About Gungulung?
posted (July 12, 2019)
And when millions are being spent - and, at least in the case of the Lake I Boulevard - misspent - that stands in stark contrast to the adjoining low income community of Gungulung. In that neighborhood, access to basic services has been a challenge, and land tenure is a mess.

We asked about the contrast and what can be done to address it:..

Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"How can we have this juxtaposition and sleep at night, knowing that we are building a $15 million dollar Ministry of Finance Building and this impoverished community is right here on the edge without access to any services?"

Christy Mastry- Director of BIL
"I completely agree, the challenge with that is formalization of housing. So, we still have the condition of squatters. We definitely still need to, but shy away from, but have to find a solution to a low income accessible model where the owner has to pay into that system. It is very difficult for a government to build free housing for all and give that away if there is no sweat equity in a project, in your building, in your business, in your home, you will not appreciate it. So, it is a very challenging question for any government, any country all over. We do need to take some time to think about that and talk about how we deal with a social housing scheme."

Jules Vasquez
"Is there any thinking that perhaps the population from there could be employed in this large development. I see this ongoing construction, I don't see people from Gungulung working. I understand you need semi-skilled labor or people with mason skills that sort of thing but is there anybody saying we have to do something for Gungulung?"

Christy Mastry
"Well, I do believe it does have an Area Representative. I think that that's..."

Jules Vasquez "But the Area Representative wasn't at the launch of the thing in March. Cordel Hyde is a PUP; he's not here today. I'm saying that maybe because of politics, I don't know who is talking to who, but he is not included in it. So, I'm saying, who is going to think of Gungulung? How can you all live with this jarring juxtaposition?"

Christy Mastry
"The truth of the matter is, as I mentioned earlier, we see this entire scheme being a partnership with the municipality. And because housing is within the city limits, I think it will be a great conversation for our office to start with the municipality. What we have really tried to focus on doing, as you will notice, is putting all of the community activities and community facilities on the eastern side of the road which is adjacent to Gungulung. So, we want them to acknowledge that we are not saying that housing in any way needs to be displaced from that area. We would like to make all our effort to formalize the housing in that area because where you have people living, you have successful development."

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