The government is repurposing land previously identified for the 1,000 Homes Project, launched under the former administration, to construct apartment buildings, duplexes and condominiums.
Explaining the decision to discontinue the 1,000 Homes Project, Junior Minister of Communities Valerie Adams-Patterson, who has responsibility for housing, said major contributory factors are the sheer number of applicants and the inability to meet the demand.
“We have recognised that one family per house lot with approximately 23,000 applications within the system is not possible for the government, not even in the next five years. … so we have decided that with the land that we have, we can accommodate more families if we provide housing units instead of a house lot, especially given that only about 55% of lots allocated has been occupied,” Adams-Patterson was quoted as saying in a Government Information Agency (GINA) report.
“This government is not going to continue that 1,000 Homes Project in its current form. In our focusing, we are looking at apartment buildings, duplexes, condominiums, three and four levels. From our design, the condo will have eight apartments on each floor, so we do two bedrooms and three bedrooms,” she added.
The 1,000 Homes Project, also known as the turnkey project, was officially launched in 2013 at New Perseverance, East Bank Demerara under the former PPP/C-led administration. However, despite being allocated, several of the almost 50 completed houses remain unoccupied because of poor construction and structural faults.
“The first phase was 200. 141 are currently under construction. The 59 that are already occupied, they currently have problems with curb wall cracked, windows dislocated and, in some cases, you have verandas moving away from the building,” Adams-Patterson said.
The housing authority has since hired a new project manager, Kennard Dazzel, who to date has visited the housing development, analysed the situation and made recommendations on the steps necessary to correct the defects.
“On the first of September, we hired a project manager specifically for that project. Works have begun on the homes, and six of the houses have already been completed and handed over to the owners. The remaining 141 houses, which are currently under construction, will be completed by December 15,” Adams-Patterson was reported as saying.
