350 house lots to be allocated in Essequibo as Housing Ministry returns

(From L-R Dwayne Boyan, Lauretta Calvan, Gaitri Lalta Persaud and Mrs Shamsundar)

Several residents of the Essequibo Coast are now proud owners of house lots. They are among the more than 350 persons who would be issued with official housing documentation through the Central Housing and Planning Authority of the Ministry of Housing and Water over the next two days.

Ken Shamsundar, a father of two, applied for a house lot in 2011. A decade later, Shamsundar felt like he won the lottery as he was allotted a plot of land at the St. Joseph Scheme in Charity.

Gaitri Lalta Persaud has been waiting for her land for more than 13 years.

“Since 2007 I applied, my son was just a baby then, and today he is 13 years old. It’s the first time I’m owning a home… I’m so happy that my next step is to visit the lot and see what we can do,” a proud Persaud told this publication.

The days of paying rent will soon be over, Forty-six years old Lauretta Calvan told us as he felt accomplished with her house lot in Charity.

“For the first time I’ll be owning my own house lot, I paid $50,000 since 2016, but the house lot was someone else’s because there was some corruption in the housing office. I feel very happy, because I does pay $30,000 rent, my next step is to get my own house… I’m grateful,” a gleaming Calvan said.

Dwayne Boyan now owns his own land at age twenty-seven. “I applied in 2016, but I never got through with a house lot. I am happy that today I can say I have my own house lot at Charity, I’m Grateful to the ministry of housing.”

Speaking this morning, Minister Susan Rodrigues said that there has been a huge neglect within the housing sector over the past five years and so the objective of the ministry is to boost allocations in all administrative regions across Guyana.

“50,000 house lots is an ambitious target… prior to 2015, 22,000 house lots were delivered in just five years. Under the previous administration, just 7,000 house lots were distributed.”

Minister Collin Croal outlined that the Charity and Onderneeming housing schemes are to see “huge infrastructural developments”, this would see drains, roads, culverts, access bridges and water and electricity distributions being added.

“The minimum estimate to develop the Buxton St. Joseph Scheme at Charity is over $850 million, while the minimum to develop Onderneeming is $1.7 billion.” He added.

Meanwhile, CHPA;s Chief Executive Officer Sherwyn Greene urged residents to occupy the lots.

“At the Central Housing and Planning Authority, we did an assessment of how much it cost to create one house lot, and install the necessary infrastructures. The figure landed at $2.5 million, but yet we are giving you the people for $92,000 to $700,000… Make sure you build within the fastest possible time.”