Squatting hampering land-allocation process in Linden

NUMEROUS reports of squatting on lands that were allocated during 2017 to residents of Linden have been reported to the Region 10 housing authorities and these allottees are calling on the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to expeditiously handle the matter, since it is hampering their progress. These low-income lands located in Phases 2 and 3 of Amelia’s Ward were allocated to mostly youths in March 2017, during an outreach hosted by Minister of Communities Valerie Patterson-Yearwood in Linden.

The lands were surveyed a few weeks ago and much to the surprise of those who were allocated, the lands were already occupied. While no permanent structure was reported to the Guyana Chronicle, some of the concerned and frustrated persons revealed that large-scale farming activities were taking place on some of the lands. One young professional expressed her fear and concern over the issue, since a squatter verbally abused and threatened her when she told him she was the rightful owner of the land.
“The man is farming on the land and it looks like a while now he farming. When we went with the surveyor, the man curse me up, threaten me, tell me he gon reach till to Suriname for me, because he was told he squatting on the land,” the visibly frustrated young woman related.

She said she did not believe that the CH&PA was handling the matter seriously and time was slipping by since she had plans of constructing her foundation soon.
“It’s like people scared of the man. I am not the only one facing this predicament, but nobody coming out and saying anything about the matter. We already had to wait months for it to be surveyed and now to see people squatting is heart-breaking. I really hope something is done soon because I am afraid this man might harm someone,” she added.

Another young man after being showed his plot of land realised that squatting had been enhanced by a concrete structure. He said that he took the initiative to put a sign with his name of the land and upon returning, the sign was removed. “When I went back, the sign was kicked down and somebody had already started carving out a concrete structure there,” he related.

When the Guyana Chronicle contacted Minister Patterson-Yearwood for a comment on the matter, she said that she was in the U.S. and would be in Linden on Tuesday to deal with the issue. At a previous outreach however, the minister had revealed that squatting would not be tolerated by her government, since it was illegal, and strategies would be implemented to provide legal allocations to residents.

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