By Leson Jones

RESIDENTS who until recently were squatting at Lombard and Broad Streets, Charlestown, will soon benefit from proper housing; the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) recently conducted the official sod-turning exercise, symbolising commencement of the construction of houses at the Prospect Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara.

The aim of the CH&PA is to construct 20 houses in a matter of weeks.
Newly appointed Minister with Responsibility for Housing, Minister Annette Ferguson; Central Housing & Planning Authority’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lelon Saul; Chairman of the CH&PA board, Apostle Elsworth Williams; and Senior Project Manager Andrea Benjamin of Food For The Poor(FFTP) Guyana Inc., were all present at the sod-turning activity done in the newly developed Prospect Housing Scheme.

The relocation programme will be completed in two phases, with phase one being the construction of 20 houses for 20 families at the Prospect Housing Scheme.
In phase two, a total of 31 families will be relocated to Cummings Lodge on the East Coast of Demerara.

The former Minister with responsibility for Housing, Valerie Adams- Yearwood, who is now a Minister of Agriculture, developed the project for the Broad and Lombard Streets residents to be relocated in 2017. This was done as part of an effort to end squatting and to assist residents.

The project was implemented after a fire had erupted and destroyed necessities such as the household appliances and livestock of the residents.

Also, the owners of the plot of land on Broad Street filed a lawsuit against the occupants and won, forcing them to vacate the land they had occupied for about 40 years.
It was announced that 20 families would be relocated to Prospect and $19 million will be spent for construction of the houses; Food for the Poor will inject $12 million into the development of the project.

The CH&PA, through the projects department and the Community Development Department, along with Food For The Poor Inc., is working swiftly to get the project on stream.
The aim is to provide shelter for the beneficiaries in a matter of weeks, as an act of ending poverty among the residents.

Additional stakeholders who were in full attendance and who will be providing their utmost assistance to the project are Food For The Poor Guyana Inc., Child Link Inc. Guyana, Help & Shelter, the Childcare and Protection Agency, the Ministry of Social Protection, the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, Youth Challenge Guyana, the Ministry of Social Protection, MoTP – Department of Social Cohesion, Culture, Youth and Sport, the Ministry of Agriculture , the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Public Security.