Long road ahead for Sir Lynden Pindling Estates residents

The Nassau Guardian

Janet Munroe, a mother of five, has been living in Sir Lynden Estates for nearly 10 years.

Munroe, like hundreds of other residents in the area, is living on land that the Privy Council has ruled is owned by Arawak Homes.

The court last Tuesday upheld a Court of Appeal judgment, which affirmed Arawak Homes’ ownership of the property.

Last Wednesday, Arawak Homes President Franon Wilson said the company is giving residents in the area 12 months to sort out their property titles.

“It’s so disheartening,” Munroe said of the situation.

“I don’t know what is happening in this country, but it seems like there [are no rights] for the poor.

“It’s like you spend your money and no one is concerned, and no one cares.

“They want to throw people out after you have worked so long and hard for all of your investment to go down the drain.

“At my age now, 57, who is going to hire me to start all over again to talk about buying property?”

Munroe said shortly after she started living in the area in 2004, Arawak Homes approached her.

“Why should the people who have to pay mortgage, why should they lose?” she asked.

“Nobody is worrying about the poor. Instead of going forward, we are going backward.

“Right now, I already did what I was supposed to do. It’s not my concern or my fault that what happened legally happened.

“All I want to know is, what about the land that I own?”

Munroe said she got a mortgage for her home — located between Sadie Curtis Primary School and Cleveland Eneas Primary School off the Charles Saunders Highway — through the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC).

She said she purchased the property from someone else several years before that.

James Bootle, who has been living in the area for 14 years, told The Guardian that he did not purchase his home from Arawak Homes.

“I never was concerned about that because the lady who we (he and his wife) bought the property from, her father sold Arawak Homes some property,” he said.

“So I don’t know if I’m involved in that. She never said.

“If they come around and they ask me anything about it then I will check into the matter.”

But Bootle, like other residents, said he did not want to lose his home.

“You have to think about it now because you never know what will come down,” he said.

“If they come and check me out, I will just have to deal with it.”

Concern

Pastor Roy Burrows, head of Vision of Hope Church of God in Christ, said he has been trying to save the property where his church is located for years.

“We were here now for over eight years,” he said.

“We have had our challenges with Arawak Homes. They were saying that the property is theirs and we were saying it is ours.

“So we have been back and forth. We are praying that God will allow the church to remain at this place.”

His church is located directly off the Charles Saunders Highway.

When Arawak Homes demolished Canaan Baptist Church on Charles Saunders Highway in September 2009 over a similar issue, Burrows said he feared his church would be next.

He said luckily, that did not happen.

Burrows admitted that the church cannot afford to pay for the land again.

“At the end of the day this is our Bahamas and this is our country and I know Mr. [Franklyn] Wilson (chairman of Arawak Homes) and his team recognize that we need all of our churches, especially with the level of crime in this country,” he said.

“I believe that Mr. Wilson will, at the end of the day, see us to remain here. One thing I believe is he is an honest man who loves the Lord also.

“But who knows? Mr. Wilson may just say to Vision of Hope, ‘you don’t have to pay anything, just remain faithful to the Lord’. Who knows? He may just say that.”

Burrows said the church has seen its membership decline because of the land issue with Arawak Homes.

“It’s really been emotional,” he said.

“It’s been trying, but I feel like at the end of the day...Mr. Wilson will see us to remain here.”

O’Brian Daniels, who lives a few houses down from Bootle, said he is trying to work something out with Arawak Homes.

Daniels, who has been living in the area for 13 years, said when Arawak Homes approached him about the property issue a few years ago, there was not much he could do.

“We are just trying to make the best of it,” he said.

Daniels said his family cannot afford to pay for their home again.

“If you already paid for something once, you don’t want to pay for it twice,” said the father of two.

“We are working through our lawyers.”

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, said he was living in the area for 21 years and Arawak Homes never approached him.

“Of course, given everything that’s happening, I’m concerned,” he said.

“I don’t want to lose my home.”

Seabreeze MP Hope Strachan yesterday offered her “sincere concern” to residents in the area.

“This is most unfortunate,” she said in a statement.

“However, please be assured that my prayers are with you and your families.

“I am actively monitoring this situation and I look forward to meeting with you very shortly in regard to this matter.”

Sir Lynden Pindling Estates, formerly Pinewood Gardens Phase II, encompasses land east of Buttonwood Avenue, south of Sequoia Street and extends east just before Beatrice Avenue.

more info...