THE Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) has announced it will be building at least 1000 housing units before the end of 2018.

Chief Executive Officer, Lelon Saul told the Guyana Chronicle that while the housing ministry has commenced the construction process, the building of another 200 homes is expected to commence in the next six months.

The units are to be built by a Trinidadian firm, Ramits and Sons, and will be located in Diamond, on the East Bank Demerara. Saul said that at least seven foreign companies are slated to build 741 housing units in a public-private arrangement that will see firms out of Barbados, Dubai, Canada and as far as Malaysia taking part in the project, while the CH&PA will oversee the construction of 259 homes.

Saul had earlier announced during a media tour that 19 single-elevated and flat housing units will be constructed at Onderneeming, on the West Bank Berbice(WBB)before mid-year.

The announcement had, however, caused the CH&PA to come in for some flak, as some opined that the housing authority seemed more bent on having exhibitions instead of actually building homes. One commentator had even contended that the CH&PA, and by extension the government, was proud of building 19 homes as compared to the 1900 homes built in 2013 by the last administration.

Saul countered saying that the last administration’s 1000 Homes programme not only failed miserably to meet their target, but has caused the current administration to expend more than $60M in remedial work on those said properties, which are mainly located at Perseverance and Providence on the East Bank of Demerara.

He, however, conceded that indeed the CH&PA had been unable to construct the number of homes they would have liked to, owing to the backlog of housing applications that had to be sorted and cleared up, the massive remedial work that had to be undertaken in the various housing schemes, and in some cases, the demolition and reconstruction of poorly built homes issued to beneficiaries.

Fixing the houses at Perseverance alone has cost the government over $60M, while another $20M had to be expended on those built at Providence.
The government also had to fix those housing schemes that were commissioned earlier, as they lacked water, electricity and other basic amenities.

“The houses had serious defects, and this mitigated a full roll out of the ministry’s projects,” Saul said, adding that where millions could have gone into additional development of the housing sector, it had to be used to fix existing projects.
He said that in the meantime, a few low and high-income homes, ranging in price from $4M to $15M, will be constructed by the private contractors. These will include two and three-bedroom single homes and elevated duplexes.

The CH&PA, Saul said, is currently in discussion with financial institutions to help make it easier for persons to access mortgages. He said moves are also afoot to engage more credit unions so they could be of help in this regard. He said, too, that the authority is also working on collaborating with the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions which has an interest in building homes in Guyana. Persons attached to credit unions here will have first preference in purchasing these homes.

All lands will remain with the CH&PA until it is handed over to the beneficiaries. Saul said that the authority will set the rules regarding the construction of the homes, and they will identify the beneficiaries.