WITHIN the space of two days, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) allocated over 550 house lots in Regions Five and Six.

“We were able to put smiles on the faces of the residents in both regions,” remarked Minister within the Ministry of Communities with responsibility for Housing, Annette Ferguson.
The Minister, along with CH&PA Chief Executive Officer, Lelon Saul, and several staffers from the agency, hosted a two-day land allocation outreach. On Thursday the team was in Corriverton, Region Six, and Friday saw the team at the Regional Democratic Council in Region Five.

The objective of the exercise, the Minister explained, was to address the backlog of applications from 2010 and further back. However, due to the overwhelming response in both regions, persons, with more recent applications, capitalised on the outreach to have their applications processed, and received their house lots.

“What we found is that persons turned up with applications from 2011 and more recently. So, with the reserve that we had, we were able to provide land to those persons,” she explained.

The minister acknowledged that the inherited backlog of house lot applications was an issue. The current administration was working assiduously to reduce same and ensure that every Guyanese receives a plot of land to achieve the dream of home-ownership.

She reminded that His Excellency President David Granger had stated that the principal objective of the Government’s housing policy was to encourage “accessible and affordable housing, in sanitary and safe communities, with the necessities for wholesome and dignified living.”