SOME $59 million will be used to fix government-built houses at Perseverance, East Bank Demerara, and residents are eager for the works to begin and for the area to be cleaned up.On Saturday, a “National Tree Planting Day” exercise came as a pleasant surprise for residents of the developing community, when a team from the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) lead by Minister within the Communities Ministry with responsibility for housing, Valerie Patterson, Saturday delivered a number of fruit trees to their homes.
Several residents had come out to greet the minister and her team and collected their fruit trees, while other residents had the pleasure of having the items delivered to their doors.
The trees came just days after the ministry commenced what could be a massive drive to repair and complete some 200 homes in two months. Minister Patterson reiterated the authority’s intention to have all the problems with the houses in the scheme rectified by Christmas.
The project’s new manager, Kennard Dazzle, detailed that the ministry commenced physical work last Wednesday and is now preparing their onsite office, apart from the materials bond that presently exists.
He said that there are about six teams that will conduct remedial works.
This work, Dazzle noted, has been prioritised to assist those most affected by the incomplete and substandard work delivered by the ministry under the previous administration.
He explained that the CH&PA is extremely concerned about getting to those persons who are paying mortgages on their homes. These persons are first priority since they had purchased homes but could not enter because of the incomplete works.
Aside from that, another team is expected to commence remedial works on the occupied homes and materials are already being stocked. Dazzle said he wants to improve the aesthetics and security of the community, pointing to huge overgrown bushes, grass and an unfavourable loam road. He is also prepared to work on the water system, since the entire community is not yet covered, improve drainage and increase street lighting.
Perseverance residents were told that their upcoming neighbours may be living in condominiums and duplexes, since this is the forwarding idea for the completion of phases three and four of the project.
“We have considered not to continue with the same setting of the current phases,” the minister said. She said instead, apartment duplexes, double apartments and three and four-storey condominiums are on the frontline.
The design for these units have already been done, and would also be built at Little Diamond and Great Diamond, and East La Penitence in the first instance.
The new ideas are not definitive, the minister said, and as such financing for the project has not been finalised, nor has the arrangement by which persons would be allocated spaces.
The Perseverance Housing Scheme consists of 200 homes, each costing $4.9m. Of that number, 141 are incomplete and the other 59 require various repairs.
Some $59 million has been released to the ministry to start its work.