Dear Mr. Editor

I HAVE decided to pen this letter to you seeking your urgent assistance in helping me to secure a house lot. I am a single-parent grandmother and I have a single- parent daughter with four children ages 10 years, seven years one-year-old and two months old, respectively. Mr Editor, I applied to the Housing Ministry in January 2010 for a low- income house lot. So far I am not a recipient of a house lot, although I have been visiting the ministry at every call. I am constantly told to keep checking; this has been going on since the date I applied.

Last year I visited the ministry and was given a letter to take to Republic Bank for a loan of $4.9 million for a turn key house at Perseverance, East Bank Demerara. But my application was turned down by the bank because I could not have met the bank’s requirement of depositing $ 900,000. I also applied for the core home for single parents in 2014, having met all of the requirements by the ministry, but I was not a recipient either.

I am presently residing at Lot 104 Golden Grove on the East Coast of Demerara with my daughter and her four children in a small, wooden dilapidated cottage. When it’s raining we suffer heavy leakage, so the windows are covered with plastic, and vinolay. The floor boards sink when we walk, the step railing, treaders and boards from the back and front have rotted away. When there is a high wind, the cottage shakes. Since the landlord passed in 2014, myself and family have been subjected to threats, harassments and verbal abuse by a woman occupying part of the land on the said property and also by numerous persons claiming ownership of the above-stated property. As of recent, a woman forcefully asked me to vacate the place, earliest.

I spoke with Ms Ingrid Jones in August of 2017 by phone for an update on my house lot application and was told that the ministry is not issuing house lots and that I would have to come in and change the application for the duplex house. I visited the ministry and was shown the pattern of houses and I chose the single duplex.

Mr Editor, on June 17th 2018, my pregnant daughter fell from the stairway after walking on a rotten board that gave way suddenly and was admitted to the GPHC maternity ward for observation. I have made appeals to his Excellency President Granger, the Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally, Mr Lelon Saul, the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the Honourable Minister of Housing Valerie Patterson, former Minister of Housing Keith Scott and the First Lady’s office. I did not receive any reply to my mails, except for the First Lady who sent me a letter and forwarded a copy to Minister Patterson for attention. I got so frustrated with all the running around that I sent letters to the Honourable Ministers Simona Broomes and Volda Lawrence; I even asked Food For The Poor for assistance in building for me. So far I have received no reply. So it’s my only option now to turn to the media to highlight my concerns, which I am certain will gain someone’s attention

I visited the Ministry of Housing in May 2018 and I was given a form to fill out and was told that they would call. It’s my earnest and humble desire to make this special appeal to you Mr Editor and trust that you will publish my letter in good faith, which would result in the processing of my application in a timely manner and myself and family receiving a long-awaited desired home.

Regards
Yvette Munroe