AS a result of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the political impasse, several projects which were to be executed by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) have been stalled.
This was disclosed by CH&PA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lelon Saul, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle.
He stated that due to the current events there have been restrictions on the amount of work contractors can accomplish. The political impasse has also affected progress.

“Regarding the implementation and rate of implementation of some new projects that have also been affected by the political impasse, there was no budget for this year; as a result we have not received any subvention through central government. Nevertheless, we are quite optimistic that, once the budget is tabled in the national assembly at the end of this political impasse, we will able to move our projects forward,” Saul explained.
However, Saul noted that the CH&PA has been continuing works under the adequate housing and urban accessibility programme as well as the sustainable housing for hinterland programme. Such works were about to conclude.

In February of this year, the CH&PA had accelerated its US$27M Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme, which saw approximately 2,000 subsidies being distributed and a number of core houses built.
The Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme comprised of three components – Affordable and Sustainable Housing; Consolidation of existing Housing Schemes and Support and Institutional Strengthening.

It is under the Affordable and Sustainable Housing component that US$5M has been earmarked for a Home Improvement Subsidy Programme that will see 2,000 persons accessing as much as $500,000 to rehabilitate their homes. Under this component as well, another US$5M has been budgeted for the construction of 250 core homes.

Additionally, the CH&PA had also launched the Jubilee promotion in Celebration of Guyana’s 50th Republic Anniversary in February where participants only had to allocate for 50% of their lands.

Mr. Saul noted that while a substantial number of persons would have benefitted from the jubilee promotion, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CH&PA had to delay payments to cater for persons who would have experienced some kind of loss due to the impact of the virus.