Tenant still reeling from 2015 eviction at Lae’s Kamkumung

By JIMMY KALEBE
A VICTIM of the recent evictions by the National Housing Corporation (NHC) in Lae says she finds it odd that the exercise seems to have involved mainly women who are health workers and single parents.
Ganu Gimoi, a laboratory technician at Angau Memorial Hospital, told her story yesterday after she was evicted from the house she had lived in for many years.
The property at section 36, allotment 3, Kamkumung, Lae, was her home from 1994 until May 15, 2015, when she was evicted by NHC over what she was told were outstanding arrears.
In an interview yesterday, Gimoi said that even though she had vacated the property, she was still paying rent through salary deductions every fortnight.
“I wrote a letter to the NHC expressing my interest to buy the property in 2012 but did not get a response from them, and the Lands Department asked me to apply for the title in 2015.”
Yesterday, Gimoi produced copies of documents showing what she had been following procedures to safeguard her claim over the property.
NHC provincial housing manager David Agwi, in a letter dated April 29, 2013, responded to Gimo’s request to purchase the property, stating that the property was not for sale as it was a unit.
She said the property had been sold to a businessman in Lae.
National Housing Corporation’s new manager in Lae, Andrew Augwi, said yesterday that he was not in a position to comment on the matter.