Public Telecommunications Minister, Catherine Hughes has recognised the need for the government to accelerate its efforts to reduce the number of housing applications currently at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).
Hughes recently attended an outreach at Kingston Secondary School, Georgetown, where she was questioned about the government’s distribution of house lots. In response, she told those gathered that plans are afoot to expand the government’s housing scheme initiative.
“What we have recognised is that in the next budget we will have to expand on the housing programme… the priority we are making now is to provide more house lots and the infrastructure to go with it, which is important… We are not saying that you will have to wait another 20 years, but that we have to double up at a faster rate,” said Hughes.
The minister explained that to make the dream of homeownership a reality, the agency is currently collaborating with other stakeholders – such as the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC) and Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo), among others – to locate vacant lands that can be utilised to establish housing schemes.
Minister Hughes stressed that the issuance of house lots has been a significant challenge since taking office, especially with the tremendous backlog. Nevertheless, she noted that the government has been working assiduously to address it.
“We are not able to generate enough house lots to meet the demand, and now we are working to ensure all who applied for land are catered for. This issue we are talking about has been accumulating for some time, so there is a huge backlog of applications, and to address it will take time.”
The minister also had a follow-up meeting with the two residents upon completion of the larger engagement in the village.
In April of this year, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CH&PA Lelon Saul, said that there are over 25,000 active applications for the Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme (AHUAP).
