Ali assures of aggressive pursuit for equitable allocation
THE Ministry of Housing and Water is continuing its aggressive pursuit of ensuring that every Guyanese has the opportunity to own a home in an equitable and transparent manner.
The policy statement was made by Minister with the portfolio, Mr. Irfaan Ali, during an allocation exercise in Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) last week. On that occasion, he noted there is still the false perception being propagated that the ministry does not employ an equitable distribution system to make sure that every single person across every single region, who has a housing need, is dealt with in a similar manner.
“I don’t know what instigates those negative assertions but, if persons of genuine interest attend the ‘One Stop Shop’ exercise and see the way in which we operate, they will see that there is nothing that we do outside of the well laid out structure and guidelines that persons have to follow to get their house lots,” he asserted.
He observed that Region Three has the second highest demand for house lots, much like Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), where 2011 applications are, currently, being processed.
Ali explained: “The work that we have done over the last three years would have ensured that we are in this position and in the West Bank area, we will be in real time, as well, which is because of the hard work of the technical team at Central Housing and Planning Authority.”
Despite this fact, however, he said many people are still complaining that they have applied since 2002 and have not, to date, been allocated lots.
“As far as we are concerned, we could only offer house lots that we have developed and have available. So, if persons have a 2002 application and we offered Belle West and you refuse it, we would consider that a refusal of the allocation offered,” Ali pointed out.
He said, in many other instances, too, persons have been refusing the offers of placement from the Ministry and the CH&PA.
“This is outside of our control. That is something within the individual’s environment and we have no control over their decision,” Ali maintained.
He reiterated that, when persons refuse an allocation, it gives others on the list the opportunity to become home owners. 
Ali assured that the Ministry of Housing will work assiduously to ensure that Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) and all other regions benefit from the processing of current applications, in keeping with its long term development target of making sure the necessary investments are in place in every single region.

More development
In addition to this, he announced that the ministry would have more development completed in Linden within Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice) later this year.
“One of the areas of critical concern to us, at the ministry, is Bartica in Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), where we have a problem with locating suitable land but we are working aggressively on having this sorted out so we could take this benefit to the people,” he stated.
He challenged those in his audience to recognise the transparency of the ministry’s allocation procedure and remarked that the primary beneficiaries are low and middle income families.
“Some even say only the rich benefit from the lots but the target group is low or middle income families. Those are the families who are benefiting today as the allocation process has always been and continues to be transparent,” Ali said.
The ministry allocated 18, 269 lots to low, moderate and middle income applicants in the last five years, for the benefit of 73,000 people and that resulted in the reduction of the deficit in the provision of housing.
The ministry resuscitated the ‘One Stop Shop’ strategy in 2009 and expanded and extended the community outreach to the regions by taking the services to communities and collaborating with the financial and construction sectors.
This initiative involved active collaboration among CH&PA, Guyana Water Inc. (GWI), lending institutions, private developers and building contractors.
Twelve ‘One Stop Shop’ exercises were conducted in 2009 in Regions Seven, Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), Four (Demerara/Mahaica), Five (Mahaica/Berbice), Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), Seven, Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) and Ten (Linden).
The number of such exercises increased to 15 in 2010 and Ali announced that his ministry would seek to allocate an additional 17,000 house lots before the end of 2011.
To accomplish the latter, 18 ‘One Stop Shop’ events are scheduled, with three already completed.