Saturday (April 9) marks a very important day in the Tobago House of Assembly’s thrust to provide affordable housing to Tobagonians.

That’s when the construction of a model starter home unit will commence at Kilgwyn, Bon Accord, Secretary for Settlements and Labour Councillor Deon Isaac announced on Wednesday at the weekly post Executive Council media briefing at the Calder Hall Administrative Complex.

It is intended to be used as a model for public housing going forward.

Councillor Isaac said it is currently too expensive to subsidise public housing, which costs the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) between 40 percent and 60 percent to subsidise each unit.

“In my opinion this subsidy is extremely high and the Assembly just cannot continue to maintain this high subsidy considering the economic challenges that our country and this island is facing and will continue to face,” Isaac stated.

As a result, he said, the Assembly is considering constructing starter units, which homeowners can extend as they wish.

Councillor Isaac said the Assembly will soon be inviting requests for proposals (RFPs) to private companies to construct houses and partner with the Tobago House of Assembly on affordable housing projects.