The government is addressing the issue of squatting in Guyana and is working on a strategy of prevention and containment.
Formally known as the Guyana Strategy for Informal Settlement Upgrading and Prevention (GSISUP), it is being developed by the Ministry of Housing and Water’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) in collaboration with the UN-Habitat and other stakeholders, according to a CH&PA release yesterday.
The Authority also informed that it hosted a validation workshop yesterday, to engage stakeholders in discussions about the strategy. Key figures present included Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal; Minister within the Ministry, Susan Rodrigues; Permanent Secretary, Bishram Kuppen; Chief Executive Officer of CH&PA, Sherwyn Greaves; Community Development Director, Gladwin Charles; and Senior Informal Settlement Upgrading Expert, Michel Frojmovic, who delivered a presentation on the current status of the strategy.
Rodrigues emphasised the importance of the strategy in addressing squatting and its role in developing strategic priorities, actionable policies, and a focus on prevention and containment. She also highlighted the government’s ongoing efforts to regularise and relocate informal settlers in various areas through the National Squatter Regularisation and Relocation Programme, which has been in place since the 1990s.
She also highlighted the government’s commitment to providing “dignified” housing developments for Guyanese citizens, “with 92 per cent of allocations going to low, moderate, and middle-income individuals over the past three years.” Rodrigues also noted that regularisation has also been done in several settlements during the three-year period, and 220 households have relocated to more wholesome communities, the release added.
