LOW cost houses will be erected in the capital city to aid in the relocation of squatters, but for those who are bent on squatting on government’s reserves, their dwellings will be

dismantled, the Minister responsible for Housing, Valerie Adams-Patterson has warned.
Patterson made the announcement on Tuesday at a news conference at her Brickdam Office. In an effort to curb the issue of squatting, which is an environmental and health hazard, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) will be implementing an Urban Renewal Programme in Georgetown which will primarily involve the relocation and resettlement of squatters to facilitate the restoration of the previously occupied sites.

“We are currently exploring a site to build very low cost wooden houses to accommodate squatters firstly in central Georgetown particularly areas such as Sophia, East and West Ruimveldt among others,” Minister Adams-Patterson explained while noting that the project will have some element of self-help.
The minister said she had met with the Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan on Monday, and had gotten his approval for the Urban Renewal Programme, following an intense discussion on the need for such an initiative. The logistics such as the number of houses to be built and their design are still to be worked out. According to the minister, there are approximately 700 squatters spread across Sophia and East and West Ruimveldt.

She said CH&PA has received credible information that a percentage of the squatters was allocated lands and have since built on those lands. Those houses are now being rented, while the owners continue to squat.
“We are going to deal with those persons!” Minister Adams-Patterson said, stating clearly that such action will not be tolerated by the Housing Authority.
“We are going to break them down if they do not remove…We will be serving them with notice, and if they don’t remove, we are going to take the structures down,” she warned.

The Housing Minister said she is cognizant of the fact, that there are persons whose applications for house lots have been in the system for several years and are awaiting approval, and as such they have turned to squatting. Thought that should not be an excuse to squat, she said that argument has been advanced and it is quite understandable, and as such those persons will be given preference when the very low cost wooden houses are built in the capital city. “I don’t believe that you should break down those people’s building and leave them on the road,” she posited.

However, she said once the low cost houses have been built, they will be offered to squatters particularly in Sophia, East and West Ruimveldt as an alternative. “If you don’t take it we will have to move you,” the Housing Minister further warned.
In 2016, 221 regularised squatters received allocation letters of the targeted 400 regularised squatters. It was noted that while some squatting areas can be regularised, others such as those in Sophia, West and East Ruimveldt cannot be regularised.

Squatting in some areas not only pose a threat to the drainage and irrigation systems but also to the health of citizens, Minister Adams Patterson said as she alluded to cases in which latrines have been erected over canals often used as source for water for washing and even bathing. “If we don’t deal with it, we are just as guilty,” she said while noting that necessary actions must be taken to restore order in the city.