FFP boosting housing in Region Five

DPI, Guyana, Monday, January 29, 2018

Several West Berbice residents will soon benefit from low-cost housing, compliments of Food For The Poor (Guyana) Incorporated (FFP).

With over nine hundred applications on the list within Region Five, FFP has already embarked on a housing project in the Union – Trafalgar area on the West Coast of Berbice.  This project will see approximately sixty families receiving two-bedroom houses outfitted with toilet and bath, as well as a water tank.

The development in the Union – Trafalgar area would be the second of its kind to be embarked upon by FFP on the West Coast of Berbice. A similar venture, the New Hope Housing Project, was executed in 2016 aback of Onderneeming, which now houses forty-three families.

The land was acquired from the Hopetown Multipurpose Co-op Society, and funding for the project was provided by an American businessman to mark the forty-third anniversary of his marriage. Each homeowner was granted time to pay for the land on which their home is constructed, and an agreement was made for the title to be handed over once full payment was received.

A new FFP housing venture will soon occupy a parcel of state land at Union – Number Thirty South, which originally fell under the purview of the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary Agriculture Development Authority (MMA/ADA). However, the plot was handed over to the Community Development Council (CDC), who in turn decided to make the land available for much-needed housing development in the area.

According to Field Officer, Colin Reynolds, works are currently in progress to survey the land and to design the housing scheme. Reynolds said the next phase, which is likely to begin in another four to five weeks, will see the construction of the homes. The project should be completed in approximately five months, following which the utility companies, Guyana Power and Light (GPL) and Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), will supply electricity and water to the homes.

One of the policies of FFP states that a family must have access to land before the organisation can assist. Also, the houses are required to be of a standard size and design. Since the organisation has over nine hundred applications on record, it will conduct assessments to identify the families whose needs are most urgent.

 

By: Bertie Peters

 

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