While 4434 land titles were distributed by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) in 2015, the agency was only able to allocate 251 house lots for the last seven months of the year.
Speaking on Friday at a press briefing, Chief Development Planner Rawle Edinboro said last year, 4434 titles were distributed and between June and December, 251 house lots were allocated. He said that the agency’s government-funded programme targeted infrastructure improvements.
“This scenario reflected a mixture in terms of approach which not only focused on lands but focused on the access to complete houses,” he said, highlighting that 28 turnkey houses were completed in Perseverance, East Bank Demerara. He said the response received was overwhelmingly good and the project, which is still ongoing, will be expanded.
The official said that the CHPA also continued its infrastructural provision programme and “this was in line towards what I would say is a very major housing initiative, not only in Region Four but in all the other regions in Guyana. At the close of 2015, we had provided services to approximately 8467 lots,” he said.
Edinboro stated that the authorities recognise that housing is a multifaceted issue and not just about the provision of land but there is also a public health element that was captured under an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) programme. “This had to do with the construction of septic tanks and trying to get the home owners to raise their lands to a certain level,” he said. He revealed that in 2015, they were able to complete 285 septic tanks.
“We also addressed, under the IDB, the issue of training and capacity building. We recognised we have to retool and equip officers because of the ever growing demands,” he said, while pointing out that training was done in the engineering, marketing and evaluation, management, legal education, accounting, customer relations and urban development fields.
Edinboro related that the CHPA had two sources of funding: from the National Budget and the IDB with $499M coming from the budget. According to the official, in 2015, $260M was used under the Low Income Settlement (LIS) programme.
“The core house initiative was geared towards addressing the low income persons. It was found in our situation that it is that very group of people whose housing needs are greatest,” he said. He related that about 400 houses were completed under the programme. Further, subsidies were provided for hinterland housing projects since it was recognised that there was historic neglect towards the hinterland regions compared to the coastland. Edinboro said 208 subsidies were provided to nine hinterland regions.
The housing official also disclosed that they were able to complete 12 community development plans that will set the stage for local communities to define projects that are important to their unique situation, which was a major shift from before. “Before, the focus was heavy on infrastructure, road and drains, but we ignored other aspects of community development where people are given opportunities to craft and develop agendas for their own communities,” he added.
For the new year, the CHPA’s focus will shift from just providing land to persons, to providing a community with all the amenities. According to Edinboro, they will look at housing development from a wider and much more holistic view. He said the focus will be on the idea of infrastructure consolidation or “community consolidation.”
“We have a clear mandate to embrace community development in a more holistic manner and therefore you will see a lot of emphasis on consolidation, on infrastructure works in the various regions in which we have schemes,” he said.
He revealed that more focus will be placed on turnkey houses as they are targeting the completion of 200 homes. There will also be added emphasis on the provision of electricity in the various housing schemes around the country.
“We are also targeting the completion of infrastructure works at Five Miles, Bartica, which is in line with the President’s vision of Bartica becoming a green town. We have also commissioned with the IDB, a national housing profile study,” Edinboro said. He related that the aim of the study is to garner important data which will help to provide the evidence needed to revisit the national housing
policy.
With community development a main focus in 2016, Edinboro stated that the hinterland regions will not be ignored as had happened over the years as US$3.1M has been set aside to continue work on the hinterland housing schemes.
City Mayor Hamilton Green who is also the chairman of the CHPA Board, said the Board has been examining the performance of the agency over the past few weeks.
“The watchword and theme has changed,” he said, adding that the vision of the new government and president is in line with that of the authority. “First we should narrow the gap between urban and rural development,” he asserted, stating that the services of new entities will be engaged in the crusade for home construction throughout the entire country.
“The government is very conscious of the present shortcomings in terms of materials, staffing, skills and we are therefore willing to engage the assistance of external forces,” he said, while adding that the objective is to ensure that they deliver their promises for the next period.
“The Board will likely consider what can be done to increase the skills available in Guyana,” Green said. He pointed out that there is a serious haemorrhage of skilled Guyanese and the country loses most of its skilled people to the Caribbean and other countries. He related that housing officials met some weeks ago with a group of private developers and one of the problems that was highlighted was the lack of skills and the availability of materials in a timely manner.
According to Green, there is a great need for improving relations with all of the municipalities and this will be discussed shortly after local government elections.
“We will engage the attention of all the new municipalities because I expect that we will be dealing with a new crop of leaders and I speak for Georgetown. Hopefully, we will have young people who will be stimulated by the vision of our present leader and the visions of those who crafted the base of our development many years ago,” he said.
According to Green, the CPHA will be looking at providing not only a structure where a man can go to eat and sleep but an environment that offers him and his family some degree of safety in the 21st century.
He added that his staff would not be accepting substandard work and contractors who have a track record of such work would be barred from future projects. He said the team would take time out to visit communities and projects to assess the level of the work that the contractors have done.
“We need to update our laws and regulations. Guyana has been lagging behind in this area and since housing is such an important component of life, we the members of the Board, take it very seriously,” he said.
