JUNIOR Minister of Communities with responsibility for Housing, Valerie Adams-Yearwood, has promised to address a range of concerns raised by residents of Sophia during an outreach to the community on Wednesday.

Among the concerns raised include road and drainage works, regularisation and the handing over of the scheme. In fact, the topic of regularisation was of great importance to the nearly 100 residents in attendance.

“For some of you where you’re squatting, if housing said you can be regularised, then you don’t have to apply for a new housing lot,” the minister told the gathering.

However, for those persons who were squatting on areas that could not be regularised, they would have to apply for house lots, the minister said.

Representative of the ministry, Richard James, highlighted that a survey was done years ago on a section of the land in Sophia and it was decided that instead of moving the residents, permission would be sought from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission to convert the squatting area into regularised house lots.

Approval was granted but James indicated that there were a few problems.

Rather than moving the persons, he said works have now commenced with the land surveyors to engage in “slight shifting” to remedy the issue over time.

Nevertheless, for those who would have applied for new house lots, the minister personally took their letters of acknowledgement and promised to look into their applications.

“We are only taking for people who want [land] at Mon Repos and Good Hope. That’s what we are offering right now,” she said.

Another issue was the ownership of lands and proof of this by virtue of possessing the relevant documents. Minister Adams-Yearwood bemoaned that persons have been living on lands passed down from generations without proper documentation.

According to her, it becomes difficult to help these persons, but urged them to acquire the relevant documents.

“Get yourselves in order [and] position yourself for what is to come to you,” she said.

Residents also highlighted that road and drainage works remain a problem in their community.

Resident Mark Wallace told the minister that he has been living in Sophia for the past 10 years on a plot of land he called “an island”. He indicated that it is located beyond the ‘B’ Field dam in Sophia, at a ballfield that was sub-divided by the previous administration for persons relocated from a reserve.

CH&PA Community Development Department, Director Gladwin Charles, told Wallace that the projects department is aware of the issues of drainage in the mentioned area and these will be addressed.

Engineers, he said, have already completed the estimates of works to be done.

“As [the CH&PA] does the roads, we have to do the drains as well,” Charles assured the residents.

These community meetings will continue until March 8 at various locations across the community.