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The Trinidad and To­ba­go Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTB­WA) has raised con­cerns that blind and vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­sons were ex­clud­ed from re­cent pub­lic hous­ing al­lo­ca­tions, de­spite Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to in­clude per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties.

In a state­ment, the as­so­ci­a­tion said it “recog­nis­es the sig­nif­i­cance of pro­vid­ing safe and se­cure hous­ing to fam­i­lies who have wait­ed many years,” but ex­pressed “deep dis­ap­point­ment that, based on the in­for­ma­tion avail­able to us, no blind or vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­sons ap­pear to have been among the ben­e­fi­cia­ries.”

It stressed that “hous­ing is not mere­ly a so­cial ben­e­fit; it is a fun­da­men­tal com­po­nent of in­de­pen­dence, dig­ni­ty, safe­ty, and in­clu­sion.”