Over 150 defaulted homestead lots on Saipan to be redistributed
Department of Public Lands Secretary Pete A. Tenorio said that over 150 defaulted homestead lots on Saipan will be redistributed through lottery process, even as over 3,000 families remain on the waiting list for residential homesteads.
“We are identifying the number of people who are eligible [to be included in the lottery] pursuant to their date of application, status of their application,” Tenorio said.
At the same time, DPL is reviewing whether the homestead lots that they will be redistributing are really in default.
“We don’t want to take back property that they have already cleaned and spent money on and then because of some issues, financial or otherwise, they had to give it up. We’re going to give them all the administrative remedies,” Tenorio said.
There is currently no plan to develop additional homestead subdivisions on Saipan, Tenorio said, although previous administrations considered the Marpi area, which will again be cleaned up of unexploded World War II ordnance with the help of federal funds.
In February, government officials led by Gov. Eloy S. Inos broke ground on the future site of a 189-lot village homestead in West San Jose, Tinian, some 19 years since the project started.