MINISTER within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues says the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government has managed to regularise 175 of 200 squatting settlements since it has been in office from the 90s to now.

During her appearance on the ‘Guyana Dialogue’ programme, Minister Rodrigues said Guyana has had a long and somewhat complicated history with squatting. She alluded to President Dr Irfaan Ali’s speech at the opening of Building Expo 2024, during which he gave a historic overview of the housing programme under the vision of Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

“And he gave an analysis of the status of housing during that time in Guyana. And that a majority of settlements were informal settlements due to a lack of a housing programme and policy under the PNC as it then was for thirty years.”

In the late 90s, the PPP/C conducted an analysis on this issue and concluded that approximately 200 squatting settlements were found across Guyana.
“During the tenure of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic from the nineties to the present day, we have regularised about 175 of those just over 200 communities,” Minister Rodrigues pointed out.
“There are areas that keep popping up around the country sometimes with squatters, and we have the unpleasant task of removing those people, especially when they are located in a zero-tolerance area,” she said.
The minister explained that they have a very strict procedure on how that is done. She noted there is a unit that handles this in a humane way.

In explaining the process, the minister said, “People are written to. We make provisions for their relocations, we put them in established housing schemes; in some cases, we help them move their structures and have their new homes set up before they are relocated, and then the squat structure is dismantled.”

According to the Housing Minister, in some cases where the squatters would have been squatting on an area earmarked for future development, they are compensated. In addition, if they have crops and other produce they are given land to continue on with their livelihoods.

“The procedures are very clear. It’s done in a structured way, in a humane way; but the circumstances can differ, and that’s what influence the extent of the help that they are given to be relocated. We have been very clear that we are not tolerating any new squatting so if a new area pops up overnight somewhere across the country, that area would not be regularised because we really need to put an end to squatting.

Squatting is illegal and with the extensive nature of the housing drive and our target of distributing $50,000 house lots in our first term in office, there really is no need for Guyanese to go and squat, and live in inhumane conditions without water and electricity and so on, and those can have dire consequences,” Minister highlighted.

Further to this, she noted that the ministry has seen too many persons lose their lives from illegal connections to electricity and more.
According to Minister Rodrigues, the Ministry of Housing and Water has done tremendous work, and through a unit under the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), it continues to address squatting daily.