The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said the government does not plan to intervene in and settle disputes between landlords and tenants who qualify for the COVID-19 rental assistance programme.

On April 27, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced long-awaited details of his rental assistance programme, revealing an initiative that was to be based on deferrals of residential rental payments.

He said at the time that there should be “no evictions between now and the end of June unless the tenant had been legally eligible for eviction before April,” adding that at the end of the three-month period, people will have 12 months to pay back the deferred amount.

However, some Bahamians have still been evicted from their homes since Dr Minnis’ announcement.

During a press conference yesterday, Mr Turnquest was asked if there is any “teeth” to the government’s programme or recourse for people who qualify for rental assistance, but still face evictions.

“This is still a landlord and tenant relationship,” he said. “The government is not minded to get involved with it from a legal point of view. To the extent that persons are having those kinds of difficulties though I do encourage them to contact the Social Services Department and Department of Housing who will provide whatever assistance is available particularly on an emergency basis. . .”

Critics have said the programme is not truly rental assistance.

Mr Turnquest said: “Understand that the persons who own these properties still have their own commitments to make and while we’ve made arrangements with the banking institutions to defer mortgage payments, those payments still have to be made.

“The assistance part of this is helping to ease the burden on the renter during a period where they have been laid off or might not have any impact because they have been terminated. We anticipate and we have faith that the economy is going to start to rebound relatively quickly and as it does these persons are going back to work and they will be able to meet their commitment. To those detractors who say it is not an assistance programme, I would beg to differ. This is very much an assistance programme because as you are able to reduce the cost of living for individuals during a time when they are challenged with respect to their income and financial ability and they can stay in their home, it is very much an assistance.

“This is a partnership and this is what we have said to the renting community, this is a partnership between the government and landlords to assist our citizens to maintain some level of dignity by having shelter during this very difficult period. We do not have the resources unfortunately to be able to do this by ourselves. We in the government, we are doing our part, we have $120 million we have allocated toward assistance programmes and we are asking the private sector to do their part to help their brothers and sisters through this very difficult period as we together work to recover.”