…gov’t promises to fast track applications, opening new schemes

EVEN before the crack of dawn, the hundreds of white chairs that lined the Square of the Revolution were filled with eager Guyanese ready to engage their elected representatives on their concerns. And at the top of their list of concerns were housing solutions.

This was the ‘Government comes to you’ Public Day, which featured all ministries and their departments and associated agencies, such as the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and utility organisations.

Junior Minister of Communities, with responsibility for housing, Valerie Patterson-Yearwood, seemed to be the minister who attracted most of the large crowd. “House lots are available at Meten-Meer-Zorg, which is a little further up [the West Coast],” Patterson shouted out to the crowd standing in the sun outside of her tent. “All the people who requesting lots in Region– you will get land there.”

Seeking to lessen the crowd and speed up the process of reaching each citizen, she directed persons to write their contact numbers and preferred area of residence on a copy of their application forms and give those to her capable staff. She promised that her ministry would then look into these and begin providing lots to persons.

However, the land at Meten-Meer-Zorg was only received by the ministry last week, she explained. Consequently, Patterson indicated that the land would need to be cleared, roads built and utilities put in place and as such, persons would not be able to begin setting up there until December.

In three weeks’ time however, the land would be demarcated and could be ready for allocation. And these are low-income to middle-income house lots, which range from $92,000 to $500,000.
“We have enough lots there to cover all of you standing here,” she posited.

Shereen Solomon had been living in St. Lucia for many years before remigrating to Guyana. She told the Guyana Chronicle that she had applied for a house lot since in 2009, but did not receive a response. At the public day however, she indicated that she was receiving desired assistance. There were persons who did not wish to reside in Region Three, but instead preferred Region Four. These included many persons who have been squatting in Sophia. As part of efforts to provide assistance to these persons, Patterson-Yearwood shared that there is available land for house lots in Annandale and Vigilance, East Coast Demerara. As before, she related that persons could indicate their preferred area on the copy of their application forms and she would review them.

“I just come to the area and so far I come to housing and planning to see how I can get through…I went and I get the form and they tell me the part where I could get the land was Annandale or Vigilance,” a citizen Rushell (only name given) said. She visited the event at around 15:00hrs, just when the crowd had begun dispersing.
Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, also has available land, but at the time the minister was unsure as to how many lots can be given out and as such, did not take any requests for that area.

In addition to the very many land applications, the minister and her team also dealt with land reallocation. For Andrew Braithwaite, the Public Day was a great initiative. “It’s a good gesture on the government’s behalf and I wish everyone would gravitate towards this opportunity,” he said. “I came for land… and so far I didn’t get much difficulty getting along.”

Even Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo took note of the sheer number of persons who came to the event for assistance in the housing sector. “You have a wide cross-section of people here… but from what I observed, the single largest attention is paid to those who are in search of a house lot or a housing unit; and most of these people seem to be young people,” the prime minister said, after his walk around the square Wednesday afternoon. “[The Public Day] is, for me, an exciting, innovative [and] novel experience, but it gives you a good feeling– a feeling of touching base with the grassroots, of touching base with the common people who have these problems and concerns and I think government officials should respond to that,” he stated.