Shantytown surveys have officially commenced and Chairman of the Shantytown Action Task Force, Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes said they are going well.

“We completed three of the shantytowns, all in the Carmichael Road area, we’re also almost finished the only one in Fox Hill, and we intend to go out Saturday and Sunday of this coming week with all 11 teams that will be conducting the survey.

“They were very receptive, and very open and the majority of them answered all of the questions. The enumerators were very pleased with the results,” Mr.Foulkes said.

“There really isn’t a challenge because everyone is cooperating, the only problem is that there are no numbers to the houses, so it’s difficult to actually pin point the houses that have been surveyed.

“What our enumerators are doing, is they are actually taking photos with their cellphones of the individual homes,” he said.

“The next move is to give notice about the intention to have all of the residents, all of the buildings that are not built to code, to have them removed.

“We intend to give three months notice, which we think is more than enough time for the residents to find alternate accommodations,” he said.

Mr.Foulkes acknowledged the efforts of the leaders in the Haitian community, who he said played a major role in preparing residents for the surveys.

“All of them read a notice in their churches on Sunday which was prepared by our committee both in English and in creole,” he said.

“We also met with five radio hosts who do Haitian-creole talk shows on their various radio stations, and they also sent out the information for us,” he added.

Mr.Foulkes said the surveys which were originally scheduled for a 6-week period, may now only be a two-week process.

The whole idea is part of an initiative to regulate all unregulated communities.