TWELVE Essequibo residents have each received $50,000 from the Central Housing and Planning Authority’s (CH&PA’s) “Jubilee Home Improvement Project”.

During the exercise yesterday, Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Ms. Valarie Patterson, disclosed that the project targeted 300 persons living in housing schemes and regularised squatter settlements developed by the CH&PA in nine of the country’s ten administrative regions.

The only reason Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) is not included in the project, the minister said, is because of the unavailability of house lots there. This notwithstanding, she said, 259 persons have been deemed eligible for subsidies.

She explained that after much deliberation and shortlisting, the 12 Essequibians who were chosen were found to have met the criteria that were asked of them.

The minister said priority was given to low-income earners, state employees and young people, and these categories of persons would be the same target groups the ministry would be working with in 2017.

The minister said the subsidy was granted so that persons could purchase hardware items to develop the physical look of their homes. As such, some of the recipients have indicated that they would be using the money to extend rooms and parts of their houses, while others disclosed that they would use the money to paint their homes.

Vice-Chairman of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Two, Ms. Nandranie Coonjah, and other housing officials from the area have said they welcome the initiative, and called on the ministry to continue the good work in providing housing for residents across Essequibo.

Minister Patterson, after hearing the pleas of Essequibo residents for house lots, urged them to start applying for land in the Onderneeming area, which is earmarked for the construction of duplex houses, as only then would they be eligible to acquire one of the apartments.