OVER the years, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) has placed keen focus on implementing the government’s policy on the distribution of serviced land for residential development. As such, 74,029 lots have been allocated over the past 12 years. These allocations were in keeping with the vision of President Bharrat Jagdeo, and his support towards the growth of the housing programme.
Chief Executive Officer of the CH&PA, Ms. Myrna Pitt made this pronouncement last week during the Ministry of Housing and Water appreciation ceremony for the Head of State, where she highlighted the success of the Central Authority’s programmes, under the astute leadership of President Jagdeo.
She said: “The CH&PA’s performance for the past 12 years surpassed all previous interventions in its history. Allocations for this period stand at 74,029, surpassing allocations for the previous 12-year period; indeed the year after his Excellency assumed office in 2000, allocations were 22,460, or 30 percent of the total for the past 12 years.”
This successful allocation process was also supported by the connected allocation of the resources, which are required to service the land and in this regard, allocations from the National Budget exceeded $500B for infrastructure for the stated period, she explained.
“It was indeed walking the talk, as focus on the housing programme deepened. It is appropriate to note what President Jagdeo once said, and I quote: “This housing programme is very important for me because a country cannot develop in the abstract, it cannot develop through macro figures because that type of development will mean very little. It has to be an aggregation of wealth of individual families. The primary task of the government is to ensure that we facilitate the process of creating wealth at the level of the family. This country has enough for every single Guyanese; every person will own his or her own home. Our work will not end until we make that dream a reality,” the CEO added
According to Pitt, evidence  of the success of the housing programme is visible throughout the length and breadth of this country, as thousands of Guyanese have already realised the dream of home ownership , and many more will be able to do so,  as the housing programme continues.
Alluding to additional indicators of the successful implementation of the Housing Ministry’s policies and programmes, she said, “The commercial and banking sectors are firmly on board and the impact on the country’s economy is well documented. In the Central Bank’s annual report, the market for low income mortgages continue to grow, and this is expected for the foreseeable future. It is important to note that all of this was taking place against the backdrop of a global economic downturn.”
In addition, she  said that the  focus of the Ministry of Housing and the CH&PA continues to be on regularising informal settlements that lend themselves to regularisation, providing and upgrading infrastructure in housing schemes and squatter settlements, granting security of tenure, collaborating with the private sector and the financial institutions to make the entire process easier and more accessible and consolidating partnerships with non-governmental organisations (NGOs)  and communities to make the housing delivery process more effective.
She said: “Over the past three years, we have been implementing the Second Low Income Settlements programme (LIS2), with the Central Authority being the only agency in Guyana that is doing this without a project executing unit, this being implemented by senior managers.”
This, she added, creates the opportunity for staff to be meaningfully involved and accountable for the success of the programme.
Pitt reiterated that the successes of the housing sector are as a result of the leadership of President Jagdeo, and are also attributable  to the vibrancy of the Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali.
“It is therefore commendable that we here in Guyana can attest to a situation that is a far cry from that currently being experienced in other parts of the world,” she said.