WITH the end of the two-day ‘Dream Realized’ Housing initiative in Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) last Saturday, the government has now allocated 3, 950 house lots within the past few months.
The Ministry of Housing recently set up an office there.
Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal, in giving an update on the recently concluded two-day housing initiative in Anna Regina, said around 300 people were allocated house lots at Onderneeming Phase Four.
However, it noted that over 40 allocations had been deferred pending investigations. He said a thorough investigation will be conducted into land irregularities found on the Essequibo Coast.
The ministry has established a regional office in Anna Regina staffed with qualified personnel, including a regional housing officer, who will lead these investigations.
“There is a particular emphasis on Essequibo and one of the first steps will be to ensure that there is a functional regional office, we will bring some order to Region Two,” he said, adding: “It’s a building that the region has available for the housing office, some remedial work is needed and they will start immediately, so that it can be ready in another three weeks. ”
The Housing Minister also said that the Essequibo Coast has had longstanding land issues, including double allocation, people illegally occupying land and illegal construction.
“So, what happens, after drawing up in the ministry system, doesn’t show that an allocation has been made, and so to us, it seems empty. We have a lot of issues like that, and so Lima Sands has a history of that, and so, we’re trying to rectify it all, ”he explained.
Meanwhile, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sherwyn Greaves, said the two-day event was very successful with some 300 people with new allotments being served.
“What I’m really proud of is that there are many long-standing issues in this region that we were able to resolve over the past two days; fortunately, we had both ministers who were able to make decisions to assist many people, ”he explained.
He said some of the issues related to mixing allocations, relocation and titling.
“There’s one woman that’s [sic] she told me she waited 17 years for a title and she was able to get it, so that’s some of the things we were able to solve for people, ”said the CEO.