CHAIRMAN of the Central Housing and Planning Authority, Hamilton Green says it will cost roughly $100B to build 10,000 duplex housing units- government’s preferred method of dealing with the demand for houselots here.Back in September Government had announced that it was redeploying land previously identified for the 1000 homes project, to the construction of apartment buildings, duplexes and condominiums. When questioned about the decision to discontinue the 1000 homes project, Minister within the Ministry of Communities with responsibility for Housing, Valerie Adams-Patterson had said a major contributory factor to the decision is the number of applicants and the fact that there are no available house lots.

“We have recognised that one family per house lot with approximately 23,000 applications within the system is not possible for the government, not even in the next five years. … so we have decided that with the land that we have, we can accommodate more families if we provide housing units instead of a house lot, especially given that only about fifty-five percent of lots allocated has been occupied,” Patterson was quoted as telling the Government Information Agency (GINA).
“This Government is not going to continue that 1000 home project in its current form. In our refocusing, we are looking at apartment buildings, duplexes, condominiums, three and four levels. From our design, the condo will have eight apartments on each floor, so we do two bedrooms and three bedrooms,” the minister said.

The 1000 homes project, also known as the Turnkey project, was officially launched at Providence in 2014. However, despite being allocated, several of the almost 50 completed houses remain unoccupied because of poor construction and finishing coupled with structural faults.

Meanwhile, in a statement on Tuesday Green said that with respect to Government’s housing programme, any view or dialogue needed to put into context the period prior to May 2015, that is, the period over the last 20 years (1995-2015). The former Georgetown Mayor said the current Administration inherited an overly ambitious programme that sought to provide a serviced houselot to anyone desirous of acquiring one and latterly the provision turnkey units.

Green said in the execution of the programme, many housing areas were developed amounting to a total of 66,124 lots. To date, he said 28,220 (45%) of those lots that were divested are still unoccupied. “This situation was further exacerbated during the 2011-2015 period. During this period, of the 38 housing areas developed, which yielded 20,015 lots, 16,273 of these remain unoccupied, representing more than 80%. When this scenario takes account of a projected GY$60 billion that is needed to complete the 380 housing and regularised squatting areas that were under intervention during the last 20 years, it shows that this approach was unsustainable. The question can be asked as to why the programme continued along the same path and still there is a backlog of 25,000 applicants in the system.”

According to Green in seeking answers to this critical question, the administration has recognised that the model adopted was not working and it was more of just land divestment rather than seeking to improve quality of life, since the numerous housing areas are still plagued with incomplete and inadequate infrastructure and lack of the necessary social facilities and services.

“In light of these challenges, households were burdened with the prospect of accessing financing and the challenges associated with undertaking their own construction. This model was definitely not aiming for the good life,” the CH&PA chairman said.

Green said the administration has recently conceptualised a new model to improve the housing delivery system to address the backlog of 25,000 applicants, particularly the 17,851 who can be classified as low income households. “This new model seeks to move beyond the provision of serviced lots to create livable and wholesome communities through the provision of full infrastructure; the necessary social facilities and services and the supply of housing units. The new model will also address the issue of reduction in infrastructure cost, since it seeks to increase density. The programme also promotes inclusivity and good planning practices, since it focuses on improving the living conditions of both coastal dwellers and hinterland Indigenous households.”

Green said too that the programme incorporates an urban renewal component to restore and beautify open spaces/reserves through the relocation and re-settlement of squatters living under disastrous and unsafe conditions to livable and wholesome communities. The projected cost of construction of approximately 50% of the 10,000 housing units (apartments and duplexes), inclusive of infrastructural works is GYD$50 billion (USD$250 million). To this must be factored-in the GYD$60 billion needed for completion of infrastructure in existing schemes. “This is the challenge that the administration is faced with to bring coherence to a housing programme that provides solutions or shelter as opposed to sale of houselots,” Green said.