Below follows Action For Housing's statement on the Devonport Apartments:

Following the announcement by Legacy Property Holdings Limited to build a 22 storey residential block between Corral Road and Smith Dorrien Avenue and which, if given the go ahead, would entail the demolishing of the existing building (i.e. Devonport Apartments), we carried out a fact-finding exercise.

We have ascertained that there are 19 flats which are in occupation and 25 which are vacant. Of the 19 which are in occupation, 7 of the occupiers are on the Government housing waiting list whilst 12 are not eligible to apply for government housing. Therefore, the tenants of these 12 flats, which include families with children, would be made homeless unless the landlords give them alternative accommodation. These tenants could also rent elsewhere but given the exorbitant rents in the private sector it is most likely they would not be able to afford them.

Cases like these highlights how vulnerable tenants who live in post-war private dwellings are and the pressing need there is to give them a reasonable measure of protection under the law.

It is pertinent to refer to the forty-third session of the Human Rights Council held in early 2020 which produced a report called Guidelines for the Implementation of the Right to Adequate Housing. Although the guidelines cover many areas on housing, we quote Guideline no.2: “States must recognize the progressive realization of the right to housing as a legal obligation under domestic law, employing the reasonableness standard developed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which means that States have an obligation to fulfil the right to housing for all as swiftly and efficiently as possible.”

We are in election year and politicians, and those aspiring to join their ranks are, or should be, more sensitive and receptive to the needs of the general public. Consequently, they should seriously consider introducing measures that would enhance the right to housing including the protection of tenants from forced evictions in situations such as the present one, in which case the landlord must, by law, offer alternative accommodation and suitable compensation to those affected. Forced evictions which would end up in homelessness should not, and must not, be allowed.