CH&PA consult soldiers on Housing Solutions 2017

GINA, GUYANA, Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Minister within the Ministry of Communities, with responsibility for housing, Valerie Adams-Patterson and a team from the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), held consultations with members of the Guyana Defence Force today, on the government housing plans and how they can own their own homes. The meeting was held at the Colonel Ulric Pilgrim Cadet School.

This is part of an on-going discussion with government employees on housing for low income earners and state employees.

Minister Adams-Patterson said that the government will be maximising the use of its available serviced lands to offer a range of housing

solutions.

“This APNU/AFC government has decided to move away from one house lot per person and the reason being we have over 25,000 applications in the system. We do not have 25,000 serviced house lots to give or meet the demand of 25,000,” the minister explained.

The minister was accompanied by the CH&PA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lelon Saul, Operation Director, Denise Tudor-King and acting Project Director, Omar Narine.

The initiative seeks to provide a serviced housing facility for citizens which includes infrastructure, water and electricity.

The minister said the focus is on building duplexes and townhouses as these types of houses can accommodate a larger number of families.

The soldiers raised concerns on the application process, prices of the units and titling.

Minister Adams-Patterson explained that persons with an application already in the system can have it transferred to apply for a unit. The Ministry will give pre-qualified persons a letter to take to in to the banks to acquire a unit.

“The year of your application does not necessarily apply to these units because it’s who qualify. You might have an application since 2000 but you may not qualify through the bank and somebody may have one 2015, 2016 and qualify,” the minister explained. She said that the ministry will be engaging banks to discuss the requirements for these mortgages.

The units will be construed in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten.

Seven hundred and sixty eight families are expected to be housed in the first phase of the implementation of this programme.

The engineers have estimated the cost at between $5M to $7M per unit but this may not be the final price.

Today at the discussion, the soldiers were given the opportunity to purchase application forms, and re-apply for transfer to units  if they wished.

 

By: Zanneel Williams