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CCNTV6
  • 7 months ago
While the official cause of the casino fire has not been determined just yet, President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association, Gregory Aboud, says reports were made to the City Corporation about homeless people lodging at the site. Meantime Mayor Chinua Alleyne tells TV6, the City Corporation is exploring its options with regards to abandoned buildings and homelessness in the City. Rynessa Cutting reports.
Transcript
00:00While the fire service is yet to determine the cause of the blaze at the building formerly occupied by the Club de Vegas Casino,
00:08word on the ground is that street dwellers occupying the vacant building may have been involved.
00:13Port of Spain Mayor Chinualin confirms that it was only last week that the council had discussions on the matter.
00:20The property in question came up for discussion in our committee meetings last week
00:25and the council asked the city engineer and the building inspectorate as well as our public health inspectorate
00:31to pay a visit to the property and make an assessment and to make contact with the property owner
00:38and take whatever corrective action can be taken by the city under the law.
00:44We've also asked both the building inspectorate and the public health inspectorate
00:48to make an assessment of all abandoned properties in the city
00:53and to make contact with the relevant owners and ensure that those properties are maintained in a way
01:01that protects all of the other property owners and users of the capital city.
01:08The mayor notes that dealing with the homeless is a complicated issue, but says the corporation is doing its part.
01:15With respect to the socially displaced in the city, we have been working very closely
01:19with the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, with the construction of the new assessment centre at South Quay.
01:27I have not yet had an opportunity to meet with the new minister, but I'm sure that we will in due course
01:33and we'll continue to collaborate very closely with the ministry to address the needs of those that are most vulnerable in the society.
01:41The news is expected to be well received by the president of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association
01:47who called on the mayor earlier today to treat urgently with the issue of vacant and abandoned properties in the capital city
01:55as well as street dwellers.
01:57They have enough at their disposal to deal with the persons who might come to, you know, occupy an empty parking lot
02:07or set up underneath a canopy of a building that is vacant and light fires and do their piping of whatever drugs they're doing and so on.
02:18They have enough at their disposal to deal with that.
02:22I mean, complaints have been made by the people in the vicinity of the episode last night.
02:29Those business owners around that area have communicated according to them with the corporation
02:36and nothing has been done according to them.
02:38Were those reports made prior to the incident?
02:40Yes, they claim so.
02:43He's urging the owners of the abandoned and vacant buildings to maintain their assets.
02:48He's also calling on the council to do more in light of what appears to be a trend of divestment away from the capital city.
02:57We are still an excellent destination and there is still a lot worth fighting for with respect to our capital city of Port of Spain.
03:05But it needs attention.
03:07It needs collaboration.
03:08And it needs an understanding that we aren't going to have a city without business.
03:15You cannot use the city as some sort of instrument of social welfare.
03:20Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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