Ten low-income, move-in ready, two-bedroom homes are nearing completion, for ten of the 15 families who will soon be relocating from the Annandale Sea Defense reserve, East Coast Demerara.
These homes, are part of a commitment made by President Irfaan Ali, late last year when he visited the families and saw first-hand the conditions under which the dwell.
In total, 15 families were informed of the relocation plans, and readily agreed; ten took up the offer of having the Ministry of Housing and Water construct homes for them while the remining five opted for lands to construct their homes.
The entire process is being facilitated by the Central Housing and Planning Authority’s Community Development Department, which has direct oversight for squatter’s relocation and regularisation. The families were engaged by commercial banks to source funding for the construction of their homes.
On Saturday, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal visited the construction site at Annandale New Scheme where he expressed his satisfaction with the pace at which the works are moving along.
He said in the coming months, as part of the government’s overall housing drive, a lot of emphasis will be placed on addressing the issue of squatting frontally.
He, however, cautioned that in addressing the issues and finding solutions for existing squatting areas, this is by no means encouraging the act of squatting.
He explained that the Community Development Department over the past year has done extensive works in terms of doing inventory of existing areas and as such the ministry has a database from which they will be working to regularise where possible and relocate where necessary.
Also, he noted that in the coming weeks, another 79 families who have been occupying the Annandale Railway Line will be given titles for the lands on which they currently occupy as part of a regularisation exercise. (Press release extracted and modified from Ministry of Housing and Water)
