— Perry Street, Tucville, Georgetown

NEXT year a number of areas will be regularised by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) including Perry Street, Tucville, Georgetown, but the housing authority has made it clear that zero-tolerance areas will not be regularised.

CH&PA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lelon Saul, in a recent interview, toldthe Guyana Chronicle that part of the authority’s focus in 2018 will not be on regularising but relocating residents from zero-tolerance areas.
He noted that Perry Street, Tucville, is among areas listed in Georgetown that would be regularised by the CH&PA.

“That area can be regularised and it will be regularised,” Saul assured.
Parts of Guyhoc Park will also be regularised, he added. However, persons squatting along the embankment of the East and West Front Road will be relocated in 2018. Squatters in Sophia are also earmarked to be relocated.

“We will develop a plan that would see some folks being relocated to Cummings Lodge; it will be a comprehensive plan. It is not just uprooting people and moving them but it is working with these communities, getting people to understand the need for them to move,” the CH&PA CEO said.

When the Guyana Chronicle visited Perry Street, Tucville, on Sunday, residents expressed satisfaction with the authority’s announcement, noting that for years, they have been seeking legal documents to the plots of land they occupy.
Kevin Graham, who grew up in Perry Street, said for the past 12 years he has been living on a plot of land opposite his parents’ home and it would be a significant achievement for him to acquire legal ownership of the land.

“That is a very good initiative, I love that, it would make it easier for me and my family. We would [sic] have to study that we have to move,” Graham told the Guyana Chronicle upon learning of CH&PA’s intention to regularise the area.
He said having a legal document such as a title would allow him to qualify for a loan to extend his home.

Tandika Hinkson, who also grew up in Perry Street with her mother and siblings, said persons would be very thrilled if the CH&PA makes good on its promises.
Hinkson told this newspaper that since the birth of her brother 23 years ago her mother has been trying to acquire legal ownership of the land they occupy.

“From ever since then to now my mother has been going into housing and finding out, they keep telling us that we are not part of the scheduled mapping their planning, etc. That was even before we got electricity or water,” she explained.
Because Perry Street is not regularised, Hinkson said her family was unable to build extensively.

“We would be very relieved because honestly speaking, I wish if we had papers I could have built already, my mother would have built up, and I would have been able to build down but because we don’t have the documents, they said anything above this height they will take it down,” she posited.

Meanwhile, there are over 500 persons squatting in the Sophia-Cummings Lodge area. CH&PA has given close to 300 of them eviction notices with a deadline of January 31, 2018. Those squatters are required to relocate once they have viable alternatives.
For those persons who would have difficulties, Saul, in an earlier interview, said that the housing authority will assist.

“We will work with the residents to find a viable alternative. Come January 31, 2018, if there are people still on the reserve and there is no other viable alternative, we will continue to work with these people to ensure that we find suitable accommodation for them,” he had explained.

CH&PA is encouraging all squatters to submit their applications for house lots.
Due to the low affordability of some citizens, the CH&PA will be exploring a number of avenues to provide low-cost homes for the poor and working class.