This year, the government has proposed that $3.1 billion of its $208.8 billion budget be allocated to the housing sector, “to continue the process of ensuring citizens have improved access to housing and a better quality of life”. Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh announced this as part of his 2013 Budget presentation on Monday last, to loud cheers and desk-thumping from his colleague ministers and parliamentarians, with Housing and Water Minister Irfaan Ali being the most vociferous.
It would appear that to members of the government, improved access to housing translates into a better quality of life. Not entirely true. While the former may follow the latter, there is no automatic transition, unless of course, one has access to the government housing schemes, colloquially known as Pradoville 1 and 2, where top notch infrastructure is laid on before house lots are allocated.
The government is exceedingly proud of its housing programme, which undoubtedly is a major success story of this and previous PPP administrations. Last year, according to statistics trotted out by Dr Singh, the Housing Ministry held nine ‘one stop shops’ where 5,869 house lots were allocated; 4,996 land titles were processed; and 2,577 of these titles were distributed. In addition, 75 core houses were built and distributed; 18 teachers, 25 nurses and 17 police officers received fast-track pre-qualification for loans for home construction and through the Turn-key Housing Initiative, 44 families in Regions 3 and 4 received two-bedroom houses. Minister Singh said too that 112 coastal families benefited from home improvement subsidies and 23 hinterland families under a pilot project in that region. He said $4.7 billion was expended in this regard.
Admirable achievements indeed, but when it is taken into consideration that for the most part house lots are not build-ready, it is clear that the housing programme is not all it is cracked up to be. Too many already poor people have the extra burden of having to prepare (sometimes by augmenting the height of the land) their house lots before they can even think of putting down a foundation. Too often, the foundation process is stalled because trucks taking the weighty materials necessary cannot traverse the loam ‘roads’ leading to these new properties. Then there is the matter of a lack of electricity as well as poor or no water supply.
“A house is not a home”, endearing lyrics by Hal David, sung by Dionne Warwick and others ring true. And in the case of Guyana, a house lot is a very far cry from a roof over someone’s head. To many would-be homeowners, it simply represents a promise; a road ahead of untold sacrifice, the subsidies a few of them qualify for notwithstanding.
This year, the government plans to spend its budgeted allocation, once approved on the distribution of 5, 900 house lots, processing over 4,000 land titles and building 210 core houses. This year, too, the Turn-key Housing Initiative will see “48 professionals between the ages of 25 and 35” owning 1,600 sq ft houses; 325 home improvement subsidies handed out and preparation being advanced on a planned “young professional housing programme”, which will see “semi-gated communities” being developed.
Meanwhile, government has not seen it fit to address the needs of retirees whose pensions are too small to allow for home ownership/maintenance and who would be hard pressed to afford today’s high rentals. Some of these elderly folk have no family and would prefer not to live in old folks’ homes which mostly cater to the inactive section of that population. But for many it’s either that or destitution as they have no relatives; none in Guyana at any rate. Previous proposals made for the consideration of affordable condo-style housing for this group have been ignored.
In addition, despite the constant reminders that the Guyana Power and Light is already overburdened, the least subtle of these being unexpected outages and shutdowns, there remains a remarkable lack of foresight in setting up housing schemes. One would have thought, given government’s focus on low carbon living, that alternative energy would be its trump card. Instead, with the exception of hinterland areas, which were never powered before anyhow, new housing and core housing are attached to the national grid. But not to worry, because in the grand scheme of things, the Amaila Falls hydropower station, in just a few years’ time will take care of all that.
