Both the Regional Chair-man and Opposition Member of Parliament for Region 10 have called on the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to “put in writing”, the promises of relocation for aggrieved Amelia’s Ward squatters as a safeguard.
Regional Chairman Deron Adams and MP Jermaine Figueira made the call during a press conference yesterday.
Between May 05 and 06, the CH&PA allegedly bulldozed about 20 structures that were illegally constructed at Phase Four Amelia’s Ward, Linden in an effort to begin construction on an access road for the housing scheme. The regional leaders have been calling for the government to act and provide some alternative arrangements for the squatters.
(PNCR photo)
On Sunday, Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal had denied that 20 squatters’ structures were bulldozed beginning on May 5th but he defended the move to clear the way for an access road stating that adequate notice had been given.
In a letter, dated May 05, 2022 [a national holiday], Secretary of the CH&PA Rajesh Ramgoolam order-ed the squatters to cease and desist from all future construction. Demolishing of the structures began the same day although the squatters had until May 12 to remove from the area.
On Monday, CH&PA Chief Executive Officer Sherwyn Greaves visited the area and met with the squatters. The CH&PA reported that an amicable settlement has been reached with sixteen residents who said that their structures had been demolished and they are to be allocated house lots in other areas. The two whose houses were demolished will receive housing units from the government.
At yesterday’s press conference, Adams said that the residents have not seen any legal documentation from the CH&PA to provide substance to the promises.
“I can say to you that I will not trust anything that the administration says…So unless I see it in writing, whatever the thing was heard yesterday and from my information that I have on the ground what was said to the residents, many of them are not satisfied with,” Adams said while pointing to a number of promises the government made to the region but failed to deliver on.
He added that the government has been consistently shutting out the Regional and Municipal leadership from its engagements with the residents and he cited Monday’s meeting as one such instance.
“We have been saying if Ministry of Housing comes into this Region, the right thing to do is to connect with the regional officials … Yesterday [Monday] what we understood is that they [CH&PA] cordoned off an area, they had one person speaking and trying to put a spin [on the bulldozing exercise]. You’re actually seeing houses mashed up on the ground and the Minister is saying that nobody’s house was bulldozed,” Adams said.
Compensation
Meanwhile, Figueira said that the squatters and by extension the residents of Linden are dissatisfied with how the situation was handled. While acknowledging that squatting is illegal, Figueira is calling on the government to now come up with a compensation plan for the squatters.
“The fact is, we were on the ground and it was shown to the world that scores of people who occupy that area, squatting or otherwise, their properties were damaged and it was damaged by the order given by CH&PA. We are saying to CH&PA that these are industrious Guyanese, many of them who would have struggled to buy their resources to build their homes, to build their foundations, to put down fences [and] they must be compensated. These are people who have made significantly grave sacrifices to acquire these materials, to acquire these resources and the government cannot willy-nilly step in, unconscionable, and break down these people’s property without any position of compensation,” he said.
Figueira added “If they are going to …relocate persons they must put it in writing. If they are going to be promising housing units, the individuals whose houses that they would have pushed down…we need to see that in writing.”
Figueira explained that there are approximately 900 squatters in the area that was designed for farming and most of them are women. He said that they would have cleared the land and “paid a [land] surveyor” to assign them lots.
“So a lot of these women and men, young people included went to that area and carve out a plot of land. They hired a surveyor recognising the need for order and paid a surveyor to carve out lots and passageways for the transport of the building materials to start building their homes. I am saying the fact that squatting has occurred just like how it has occurred in many parts of Guyana, where the government went in and regularize squatting, we are saying that this particular community should also be regularized and first priority must be given to the squatters and it must be given in recognition of the fact that they went and squat because they cannot afford [house lots].
“We are of the view that squatting is illegal, but the fact of the matter is a lot of communities were built out of squatting and it requires government intervention to go into those communities and regularize it in a manner that is beneficial to the people,” Figueira said.
