– CEO promises fair distribution of house lots, reasonable prices

By Vishani Ragobeer

A TOTAL of 703 persons are now better positioned to receive affordable house lots, following the assistance provided by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) over the past few days at the Chateau Margot Primary School.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CH&PA, Sherwyn Greaves, told the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday that the authority met with 703 persons who had previously applied for house lots and those who were new applicants. Of that sum, more than 300 persons had applied before and were waiting on a house lot — with one application dating as far back as 1999.

“We took down their information, their contact information and we’ll be contacting them as soon as land becomes available,” Greaves said, highlighting that persons who applied years before will be given priority.

In the recently-approved 2020 Emergency Budget, land preparation for 22 areas on the East Coast, East Bank, and West Bank Demerara; Linden; Berbice and Essequibo, were approved. Greaves explained previously that these lands had to be prepared with the necessary infrastructure such as roads, electricity and drainage and irrigation.

The land allocations for the residents will fall under this project. The ministry will ensure all the necessary infrastructure for sustainable housing such as roads, electricity, lights, and drainage and irrigation are installed before persons are asked to pay for and occupy these lands. The distribution will be conducted in a fair manner, with persons who have applied the longest being contacted for lands first.

Additionally, 59 new applications were accepted while more than 300 persons, also applying for the first time, were scheduled to return with the required documents on Saturday (yesterday) and on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

While Greaves highlighted that priority will be given to the persons who applied before, this does not necessarily mean the priority is also extended to the squatters who are occupying lands that belong to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) in Vryheid’s Lust, Success, and Chateau Margot and the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) for some months now.

“I wasn’t particularly looking if this was a squatter or this wasn’t a squatter. I was just looking at if persons have applied before and if we have land available. We’re dealing with them from oldest in,” the CEO said. This, he stressed, is to ensure that there is some fairness in the land allocation process.

AFFORDABLE

It was reported in some sections of the media that Guyanese may soon be paying less than $100,000 for some categories of low income lots, in keeping with the Government’s promise of affordable housing.

When asked about this, Greaves related that the authority has not yet settled on a fixed price as yet. However, he assured, “We’re trying to give out house lots as cheap as possible to meet the needs of people.”

He also assured that the sometimes exorbitant prices of house lots, under the previous administration, would be revisited.

SQUATTERS’ PLIGHT

While the CEO indicated that there is no priority being given to the squatters on the ECD lands, the squatters took their plight to State House where they were able to meet with Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo. It was reported that the former President said that these persons are likely to have a meeting with the subject ministers.

However, in a statement issued to the media, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, said that he had met with these squatters before and urged them to desist from squatting on the GuySuCo lands. He also encouraged them to apply for house lots through the ministry.

One squatter, Lucy Moore has been living in Success since March. She was living with her mother and her four children, but was forced to move because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I applied for land since 2004 but when I go back in March there was no record of my application so I had to reapply,” she said. “I just tired and fed up. We want to stay here and we don’t want to move.”

Exacerbating the situation, however, is that these lands were used for GuySuCo’s research on the cane crop. The lands cleared by the squatters resulted in the loss of an estimated two billion future cash flows and an unquantifiable amount of data and research.

Still, the squatters bemoan that they have no other option.

“I just doing this for my chirren them, we don’t have nowhere to go,” another squatter, Loreen Sewsarran, said. She was a squatter who was hit by the police pellets during a standoff with the police and the squatters on Wednesday.

These squatters have been given up to Monday to vacate the GuySuCo lands they are occupying. Already, the bridge connecting the GuySuCo lands where the squatters are to the rest of Success has been dismantled but the squatters have since erected a makeshift bridge made from pieces of wood and tree branches to get to their temporary houses.