A woman who attempted to demolish a shantytown on land off Bacardi Road she allegedly leases from the government is calling on the Davis administration to deal with the issue of shantytowns in the country.

"I need to know the government's next steps, then I will know how to move on," Jestina Curry said yesterday.

Curry, 64, took activist Lincoln Bain and a group of his supporters to the property on Saturday, where they warned residents that they had 15 minutes before a bulldozer would be used to destroy the buildings on the property.

No demolitions took place after Assistant Commissioner of Police B. K. Bonamy intervened.

In an interview with The Nassau Guardian, Curry claimed that she first inquired about the land for farming purposes back in 2007.

She said that at that time, the property had six houses on it, including a farm house with somebody living in it, and a church.

Curry said that in 2013, her Crown land lease was approved.

She said others also received Crown land at the same time.

Curry added that in the years that followed, individuals drifted onto the property and began building.

Today, the shantytown has dozens of homes and there are foundations for at least five homes under construction.

"Some of the houses are developed with solar panels," Curry said. "The houses are painted ... they have cesspits ... I need to know what the government's next steps are from here."

Curry said she appealed to officials over the years for help removing the shantytown residents from the land, but to no avail.

During their attempted demolition on Saturday, Bain showed residents a letter purportedly from the Ministry of Works in Haitian Creole dated November 2020 ordering residents to take down the structures on the property.

Curry also showed The Nassau Guardian a photocopy of what appeared to be unsigned lease agreement for the land.

The agreement names Jestina Curry as the lessee for an initial term of 21 years starting June 1, 2013.

"I surveyed the land, then I started making my lease payments," she said.

Curry denied that she ever collected rent from residents of the shantytown.

"How could you build a house with no permit? I can't put a wall up here without a permit," she also said.

"They would stand right over there and wait until I'm done and knock it down. Look how many years they are giving these people before they move these houses. It's unbelievable. It's wrong."

On Saturday, Curry had tractors ready to tear down the homes.

Curry, Bain and Bain's supporters went door to door in the community warning people that they had 15 minutes to vacate their homes.

Curry thinks that since the structures were constructed without proper permits, government should take responsibility for removing them from the property.

"The government needs to demolish that," she insisted, adding that she already paid money for the demolition that did not happen.

"They take my money [that] I paid the tractors," said Curry. "You have to pay before you start. When they reach on that ground, their clock starts ticking.

"The government needs to deal with their situation. Get the people off the property, or give me the thing for me to go ahead.

"My next step is to claim my property, fence it around."

Curry suggested that the shantytown issue isn't the first time government has sought to regulate people's living conditions.

"Get rid of them, get rid of them," she repeated.

"If they got rid of outside toilets around here, why they can't get rid of shantytowns?

"When you had outside toilets, they said shut it down, shut up your well. I grew up with wells and outside toilets.

"Outside toilet was cleaner than inside toilet. You go in some people house and when you push the door, you could smell the toilet. You never smelt no outside toilet.

"The next step is to go back and demolish them. [Department of] Agriculture telling me I need to get the people off the property, so how will I get them off if I don't start demolishing them? How will I get them off?

"Mr. B.K. Bonamy said stop the demolition when I had the tractor out there. He need to pay for the tractor.

"How they could make squatters claims and I was telling them to get off that before time to make squatters claims?"

Bonamy said on Sunday that Curry has papers that indicated she owns the land. He said police explained to her and to Bain the proper procedure for having people removed from the land.

A court ruling that government's shantytown eradication policy is legal has put pressure on the Davis administration to take action in the unregulated communities.

The shantytown eradication policy was implemented by the Minnis administration, and was put on hold via an injunction while the court considered the legality of the policy.

While Davis announced a hardline approach to shantytowns in a national address more than a week ago, calling for residents of those communities to find alternative housing, he has also said the matter must be addressed humanely, adding that the government must be careful not to create a crisis of homelessness.

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