20,000 families own homes through squatting regularisation
– Minister Ali reports
AT least 20,000 families have benefitted from home ownership through the regularisation of 171 squatting areas across the country, over the past 18 years, Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali disclosed recently. In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, he said this is in keeping with the primary objectives of the policies pursued by the Government in the Housing Sector, which is to make housing affordable to all Guyanese as a human right.
Ali reminded that, before the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) took office in 1992, there was no squatting regularisation programme to deal with persons living in those areas.
He said: “In order to understand the overall housing development, one has to appreciate the context in which the sector has developed over the years. So you may ask, why squatting? In 1992, when the PPP was elected, we had approximately 221 squatter settlements; now there is a lot of political ghaff around the issue of squatting and that’s riddled with inaccuracy and sentimental statements. Today we have been able to regularise 171 of those squatter settlements, bringing with it benefits to more than 20,934 households.
Expounding on the importance of the regularisation process, Minister Ali highlighted that more than 20,000 families could now access loans because they have built up equity in land title, which would never have been possible, prior to 1992.
He said, in 1992, the budgetary investment in housing was a sham but the government has continuously invested over the years and, in the last three years alone, close to $9 billion has been invested in the sector.
According to Ali: “When we started the housing programme, the need was so extreme that there were very strong criteria because demand outweighed supply and one of the stipulations was that applicants had to have at least one child below 21 years of age and belong to a low income family.”
He noted that the programme has matured to the point where more young persons are becoming home owners and more initiatives are being integrated into the housing drive, including public/private partnership.
Ali pointed to benefits of the establishment of the Squatter Regularisation Department in 1999, within Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), through which the Ministry is now able to interact on a regular basis with community groups and individuals, to address regularisation issues. 

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He said, despite continued efforts to regularise most of the 216 identified squatter settlements, there are those communities which fall under the zero tolerance zone, which are either on sea defences or drainage reserves and, as such, cannot be regularised.
Explaining the challenges, Director of Community Development Planning, Mr. Gladwin Charles, who was with the Minister, pointed to one such area, Plastic City, which is located North of the sea defence in the Crane/Best area on the West Coast of Demerara.
He disclosed that the location has approximately 166 households and has been occupied by squatters, residing in poor living conditions in mostly small shacks for more than 20 years.
“Although residents are aware of the dangers of living in the area, they are reluctant to move because of the years of occupancy. They have also indicated that, because of the proximity of their work and services, they do not want to remove,” Charles stated.
The residents were visited by former Minister of Housing, Mr. Shaik Baksh, first in 2001 and then in 2004, when he pointed to the dangers of the situation and offered to have them relocated.
After several meetings over the years, some of them were informed that lots were offered them in Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) and, despite poor response, 60 persons have applied and accepted the offer.
Reporting on the current state of the relocation process, Charles said: “Twenty persons have actually received allocations and ten have removed their buildings from the area and relocated to the Parfait Harmonie Housing Scheme. Within another month, another 40 will be allocated lots in Westminster Phase Two.”
Of the 171 areas currently being regularised, surveys from 149 have been completed, he said.