Presidential Decree 16-13 that declares the relocation of the inhabitants of the Santo Domingo riverside slum of La Barquita as a top priority has restored hope and optimism to the impoverished barrio; but it has also created uncertainty among local homeowners and their tenants. Property owners are saying that their exclusion from the solution that is being offered to the current residents is unfair.
One community leader, Josefina Made said that “some property owners do not like the fact that the census counted tenants and left out people who had built houses and lived there for many years. Because many people have left here because of sickness and because they cannot cope with the conditions. Yet they have not left the area, because the rent that is paid, one or two thousand, is not money.” She said that “the population is happy, because at last the President is giving them what they have been asking for which is to appoint the commissions by decree and this means that they are going to work. We congratulate the President for this decree.”
The president of the Agustina Neighborhood Board in La Barquita, Eridania Rosario said “some owners claim the right to their house, and say that every time that they evict the tenants they have to give them at least enough money for finding a new place to live. I think that there won’t be any problem because we are looking for solutions and they are going to find them.”
She said that given the situation and before the census was announced, property owners tried to get the tenants of the poor housing out in order to receive whatever the government would be giving away.