164 more core homes being built countrywide
MORE families are expected to benefit this year, as the Ministry of Housing and Water, through the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), will be constructing an additional 164 core homes across the country. The Community Housing and Development Department set target was to have 84 such houses at varying stages of construction in 2011 and Minister with the portfolio, Mr. Irfaan Ali, said the programme falls within the Government’s wider scheme of ensuring poverty reduction  and developing programmes and strategies which will result in direct benefits to all the people.
“That is why our strategy, since 2006, was to approach economic expansion through the pro-poor way and this is ensuring that the poor and vulnerable in our society are given additional opportunity to ensure that issues of equality are addressed and that the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ is not extraordinary,” he explained, during one of the handing-over ceremonies last year.
Thirty-two of those houses were completed and handed over by the end of last year, but 53 core homes are currently being built.
The finished structures were presented to 16 families in Block ‘D’ Bath, Phase One  in Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice), nine families in Section ‘EE’, Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara and seven families in Westminster, Phase One, in Region 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara).
Alluding to the advantages of such a project, Chief Executive Officer of CH&PA, Ms. Myrna Pitt, said the core house pilot was designed to address issues of affordability and occupancy.
She noted that it targets only low-income allottees within housing schemes, who met the criteria and were determined  eligible.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES
eferring to certain design principles under the programme, Pitt pointed out that the CH&PA will be supplying the starter unit which would be outfitted with a multipurpose sink, a toilet and bath area and septic tanks with plumbing and electrical fittings.
“The core house lends itself to expansion … as the beneficiary family can afford it. This is critical and it allows the family to expand or improve on that basic unit as their financial circumstances improve,” she said.
The homes now under construction are located in Area ‘B’ Lusignan and Westminster Phase One, Section ‘EE’ Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara and Tabatinga, in Region 9 (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo). 
The core homes project is a collaborative venture between Government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and falls under the CH&PA second Low-Income Settlement Programme being executed at a cost of US$27.9M.
The ‘Core House Pilot’ is one such scheme which is aimed at addressing occupancy and issues of affordability, through the construction of 400 homes countrywide, by which the Government provides an alternative to affordable housing for low-income earners.
It comprises a modest 330 square foot timber and concrete structure with no internal partition walls, except for the enclosed sanitary block comprising a toilet and bath.
Elevated three feet above ground level, the house lends itself to easy expansion as the occupant is able to afford and is expected to improve the access of low-income families to enhanced living conditions, through a wide range of housing solutions and access to house lots.