– to adequately address housing backlog

THE Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) needs some 12,500 acres (or 50.59 square km) of land in the coastland and hinterland regions if it is to address the over 62,500 active applicants that it had as at the end of December 2018, 60 per cent of whom are low-income applicants.

The Authority is going to need approximately $136.5 billion over the course of 10 years, if targets to deal with the situation, as outlined in a 10-year projections report, is to be met. Of that cost, some $22 billion is expected to cater for land acquisition.
The CH&PA’s 10-year strategy takes into consideration the quantitative as well as the qualitative housing deficits.

To attend this situation that the CH&PA is proposing, among other things, a plan whereby 50 per cent of the overall backlog, or 31, 262 applicants will be targeted with Housing Solutions of which 70 per cent (21,884 applicants) should go to low-income and 30 per cent to those in the middle-income bracket.

These and other statistics from the Authority’s 10-year projections was outlined by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lelon Saul, as he made presentations on the “CH&PA’s Ten-Year Strategy for Housing and Community Development” during the Ministry of Communities (MoC) Annual Senior Staff Conference last Tuesday.

CH&PA falls under the management of the MoC. The projections in the report does not account for the 6722 applicants that the Authority interviewed in 2019.

Over the five-year period from 2015 to 2019, the CH&PA interviewed a total of 26,439 applicants as against a total of 6,451 allocations that were made. Over that period, some 8,935 titles and transports were processed, while 16,043 were uplifted by owners.
“Notwithstanding initiatives, the chasm between demand and supply continues to widen, however we can ill afford to propose unrealistic targets and unworkable solutions,” Saul expressed, as he delivered remarks on the report.

“Our plans must be guided by data such as population growth, etcetera. We must be aware of the national plans for industrialization, infrastructural developments, and such. It is a waste of time for us to plan in isolation.”

Of the 62, 524 active applicants, only one per cent, or 653 of the applicants, qualify as high-income applicants, while a mere 1652 or three per cent account for the middle income applicants; 7830, or 13 per cent of the total are considered moderate-income applicants.
The staggering 60 per cent very low-income applicants comes up to 34,996. Of the remaining 13, 757 active applicants are low income, while for 3,636 the income is unknown.

By administrative Region, 61.6% of the active applicants are in Demerara-Mahaica, of which 54.5% of those falls in the very low income category, the next most in demand region is Essequibo Islands West Demerara with 9821 applicants, again majority are very low income earners, some 58.6 per cent.

Inadequate housing, and the lack of appropriate resolutions to deal with an ever growing demand, continues to a burning issue in Guyana. Over the years several initiatives have been implemented in attempts to tackle the situation.

Notwithstanding the inadequate supply of land, many of those who do get allocated lands often struggle to pay for the land, or cannot afford to build homes. To address this dilemma, the “Turn Key” programme, whereby the government builds the houses, which are then sold to applicants along with the land, began a few years ago.

There is also the suggestion of the introduction of “Rent-to-Own” models.
Another ongoing initiative is the Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme funded with a US$27 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and launched in October, 2018.

The programme has three components – Affordable and Sustainable Housing; Consolidation of existing Housing Schemes; and Support and Institutional Strengthening.
Under the Affordable and Sustainable Housing component US$5M was earmarked for a “Home Improvement Subsidy Programme” which targeted 2,000 persons accessing as much as $500,000 to rehabilitate their homes; while another US$5M has been budgeted for the construction of 250 “Core Homes”. The projects targets specified areas.

The initiative is part of a wider scheme of the CH&PA to address qualitative deficit, whereby the authority suggests that issuing of a total of 6450 “Home Improvement Subsidy” and 1250 “Core Home Support” across a period from 2017 – 2030.

The projection caters for another 500 “Core Homes” and 2450 home improvements from 2020 – 2025 under a “GoG Subsidy Programme”, and another 500 core homes, and 2000 subsidies from 2026 – 2030 under a “New Projected Subsidies” programme.

Via a 2019 study the Authority did an assessment of the quality of standard of living of many existing homes, finding several to be severely deficient; totalling 60,101.
There is also need for provision of sustainable housing solutions for informal settlers being relocated from “zero tolerance areas; essentially squatters occupying areas that cannot be regularized”. Saul also touched on the need for cooperative villages, and collaboration with NGOs.

Under the consolidation of housing schemes the focus is on the upgrading of infrastructure such as road, water and street lights; naming of streets and the handing over of housing schemes to local democratic organs.

The CH&PA is also looking at the development of a new allocation model, by reviewing the current allocation criteria and inputting a system that addresses application backlog alongside new applicants.