The Ministry of Housing and Water is set to establish a housing scheme for 200 low-income families in the hinterland under the second Low-Income Settlement (LIS) Programme.

According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release this venture will be funded from the recently approved US$27.9M loan from the Inter-American Development Bank. The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs will be collaborating on the design for scheme.

Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali said under this initiative housing schemes will be established in the hinterland regions similar to those on the Coast. “We are in the process of selecting ideally eight areas that we would have initial interventions and this would see the establishment of 200 low-income homes within the hinterland communities,” he said. “This of course has a number of benefits; it will bring community life closer, foster greater integration, collaboration and cooperation among the people,” he added.

According to GINA the CH&PA implemented the first LIS programme in 2007. It was designed to improve low-income families access to enhanced living conditions through housing solutions and access to house lots. It is expected to benefit about 12,000 people, (about eight per cent of the country’s households). The first programme had realized an achievement rate of 95% at the end of 2006. About $800M was spent on developing infrastructure in that year for more than 9,000 house lots.

Meanwhile, GINA said infrastructural works are being conducted in various regions countrywide including at Number 77 Village and Fort Ordnance, Region Six, Parfait/Harmonie, Region Three, Non Pareil, Region Four and Amelia’s Ward, Region Ten. “We have a lot of investment at the moment, a lot of infrastructural work that is ongoing, all aimed at increasing the stock of house lots that we have available,” Ali said.