Towards housing the nation
By M.Z. Ali
Guyana Chronicle
January 18, 2004
HOUSING is one of the basic necessities of life and the Ministry of Housing and Water must be applauded for the tremendous efforts it is making to fulfill this Herculean task in helping Guyanese to own their own homes.
Indeed, for a decade now, the Ministry of Housing and Water has spared no effort to realise this goal for the Guyanese people, and for the first time, thousands of Guyanese are continuing to build their own houses.
Prior to this, the housing situation in Guyana was nothing short of a nightmare and shattered dream. So bad was the situation then that the economic circumstances, coupled with increases in family size, led to the illegal occupation of land, called squatting.
Before 1992, the former People's National Congress Administration had closed down the Ministry of Housing, leaving to function only a depleted Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA). This also contributed to squatting which became the order of the day. However, when the People's Progressive Party (PPP) government took office, the Ministry of Housing was re-established and the CH&PA reactivated.
The Government now has a dynamic housing programme on stream to address the issue of the demand for house lots in the shortest possible time.
So explosive was the situation that the people, by droves, turned to squatting in all parts of Guyana. Something had to be done and quickly too. This brought the government into action in an attempt to correct and improve the situation, and fortunes changed for the majority of the people.
When the current PPP Government came into power in 1992, it moved quickly and set the gear in motion to seriously address the housing shortage, and it was discovered that the severity of the situation had demanded that for the following five years, some 28,790 houses or an average of 5,758 new housing units were needed each year for the first five years.
Working with lightning pace, by the end of 1996, the Ministry of Housing had distributed some 12,000 house lots in various parts of the country.
It was not an easy task to provide house lots to every Guyanese at the same time, but with the interest of the people at heart, almost 60,000 house lots have already been distributed to Guyanese from all regions of the country.
It was not all easy sailing, because first of all the government had to embark on land divestment since most of the vacant lands on the coastal belt were owned by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO). The land divestment policy of government has allowed many squatting areas to develop into housing schemes, especially in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) between 1993 and 1997.
Between 1993 and 1997, some 13,625 house lots were distributed, while another 8,045 were given out in 1998. 1999 saw the distribution of 6,544 house lots. Putting its housing drive in top gear, the government distributed 22,460 house lots in year 2000 alone, bringing the overall figure to over 50,463 up to that period.
A year-by-year breakdown shows that in the first year of the PPP/C Government, in 1993, some 359 house lots were distributed. In 1994, some 1,025 lots were given out. The figure jumped to 4,122 in 1995, while in 1996, another 4,068 lots were distributed. In 1997, some 4,051 were distributed. The trend continued and in 1998 some 8,045 were given out, with the figure reaching 6,544 in 1999. The figure sky-rocketed in year 2000 when a whooping 22,460 house lots were distributed. In 2001, some 975 were distributed while 4,195 were distributed in 2002, bringing the figure to date almost 60,000.
The housing drive continues to accelerate, and presently most of the housing schemes are graced with beautiful structures, a far cry from the shacks and dilapidated buildings that punctuated the landscape prior to 1992.
Squatting, which has a direct relationship to housing, has compelled the authorities to include it as one of the pillars in the government's housing policy. Since squatting was widespread and had to be urgently addressed, the Ministry of Housing saw as one of its main objectives, the upgrading of squatting areas, wherever possible, into housing schemes, as quickly as possible.
Providing house lots has to be done with some degree of uniformity, and this was greeted with problems because of squatting. However, since the government is committed to making house lots available to all Guyanese, the Ministry of Housing embarked on a regularisation programme in order to regularise exiting squatter settlements.
There are more than 100 squatting areas in the country, about 62 of which are under regularisation. Nine of these are in Region Three, 32 in Region Four and 21 in Region Six. In Sophia, the regularisation process is far advanced in nine out of ten squatting areas and over $100M were spent on roads, water and drainage there.
Rasville has been regularised and lots have been allocated, while lots were distributed to Tiger Bay residents and allottees have already started relocating to housing areas.
Heavy works are continuing in the housing schemes and squatter settlements in the form of drainage systems, buildings, road networks and water distribution, running into billions of dollars. While these works are aimed at improving living conditions of Guyanese, they also serve to raise the value of house lots, thus creating wealth for allottees.
Over the years, the Government has kept a tight grip on the housing policy and even today, it remains pro-active in its housing drive which has so far served well towards eliminating the need for people to resort to squatting.
As the population grows, there will be need for more house lots to be made available to Guyanese. The government has recognised this, and work is continuing to get on top of the situation by providing affordable house lots to everybody.
In its quest to help the people, the Government is also seeking the services of private developers and contractors to provide affordable houses to all Guyanese especially Low Income Earners.
So far, several private schemes have been developed and Low Income Houses were built by private developers, and contractors for the government in many of the established schemes. It is heartening to note that most of these houses have already been bought up by Low Income Earners.
The housing drive is continuing in top gear and between 1993 and the present time, all ten administrative regions benefited from house lots distribution. During this period a record number of 92 housing schemes were established. Twenty-two of these schemes were established in the year 2000 alone.
Giving out house lots is just one facet of the Government housing programme. The people have already started receiving land titles and transports.
This, in effect, means that the government is giving the people ownership to the land they possess, not only in the established housing schemes, but also those in squatter settlements which have been regularised.
As an incentive to encourage allottees to build very quickly, the Ministry of Housing and Water has reduced the down payment on house lots.
The former figures of 50 and 33 1/3 per cent have now been slashed to 20 per cent. This move by the Ministry is aimed at helping allottees so they can pay off for their lots and access loans from lending institutions to build.
By dint of hard work and commitment over the past eleven years, the Ministry of Housing and Water was able to drastically reduce the demand for house lots. The Ministry intends to continue doing so until most, if not all Guyanese would be comfortably housed in their own homes.