500 house lots for Region Nine residents in October
Some 500 residents in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) are set to benefit from the Central Housing and Planning Authority’s (CH&PA) house lot distribution exercise scheduled for October.
The distribution exercise will see the establishment of a new housing scheme at Pork Bridge, some six miles away from Lethem.
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, MP, made the disclosure during a radio interview on a recent outreach to the region. He said the Government continues its efforts to reduce the backlog of house lot applications.
“We already have the design so it will form part of our 2022 budgetary programme that is for the infrastructure work. We are looking to spend probably over $1 billion on that new housing area and so persons here and the region in general because it is not only people in Lethem that applied but persons within the region who want to come and live centrally.”
The housing minister said he “hopes that by the end of that exercise, we will be updated with pending applicants. Of course, there are persons over the years who have probably moved on or migrated so that is why I am sure that we will be updated with that.”
Minister Croal revealed that ten villages in the region will benefit from the recommencement of the ministry’s Sustainable Housing for the Hinterland Programme. He said villagers will be pleased to know what is in store for them.
Th housing minister said the development will promote home ownership in the communities and boost village economies through job creation.
“We will have a hybrid method and we are expecting to commence works for the construction or completion of one hundred houses here in region nine and I am talking in the various villages. We will have a spread and so we will have two villages for every subdistrict…in this first phase in the recommencement of the hinterland programme,” Minister Croal stated.
He said adaptability will play a significant role in the programme taking into consideration the materials available to complete the homes.
To this end, the ministry intends to construct roughly 500 homes in Regions One, Seven, Eight, and Nine, as well as communities on the coastland.
The move is in keeping with the Government’s manifesto promise to allocate 50,000 housing lots during its five years in office.
The housing ministry has allocated over 7,000 house lots since taking office in August 2020.
Responding to inquiries about the turnkey housing programme offered on the coastland, the minister said CH&PA is working to fast-track the process.
“They (beneficiaries) come from our system but they bear the cost and we have them prequalify with the banks which they pay the banks as part of the mortgage system…we are merely facilitating the process for the construction of houses to help in employment and to fast track in occupancy within housing schemes since everyone does not have the time to build,” he added.
This approach, Minister Croal explained, will be different to what is offered in the hinterland.