Renting amputee among 500 to receive house lots along ECD

by Sharda Bacchus

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Having lost a leg, Lusignan, East Coast Demerara (ECD) resident, Jesus Mahamgoo still tried to provide for his wife and four children.

For years, they have been living in a rented apartment and his dream of building a comfortable space one day for them is now closer to realization.

“We renting a good time and I think the time up now fah pay rent and is time to own my own place.

“We planning to build something and live because renting is not an easy thing to deal with,” Mahamgoo told the News Room as he wait to pull a number for his house lot at the Ministry of Housing and Water ‘Dream Realised’ initiative held at the Arthur Chung Conference Center on Friday.

A total of 500 house lots were distributed at the event which is the 50th of such to be held by the Ministry since the PPP/C government assumed office in 2020.

The lots were allocated in the areas of La Bonne Intention Phase 4 and De Endragt, ECD.

Thought she does not live here, 49-year-old Bibi Fazeela Singh hopped on the next flight out when she received the call about receiving her lot recently.

She waited for 15 years, a period of frustration which she was not willing to redo.

“I don’t have a land. I don’t have a house. I am glad and grateful and thankful for it”

“After I applied, was just hoping and praying and waiting that someday I would be called and finally I was called. Long and at last,” Singh told the News Room.

Meanwhile, for pensioner, Corin Gibson who is confined to a wheelchair, the time is now to get her own home.

Gibson lives with her sister and a niece.

“When I got the call I was very, very happy….I in a different mood.

“I am not working now because I get sick that’s why I am happy that I can get my own. I don’t have to share,” Gibson shared.

In his address at the ceremony, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal said the government have invested over $62 billion in infrastructural works on the East Coast of Demerara.

And for this year, he said another $32 billion dollars is being spent to develop several areas on the ECD.

“Every resource that we have asked for, for both housing and water, it has been made available for us to fulfill our mandate. And so, the work continues,” Croal said.

With thousands of house lots allocated over the years, Croal said there are currently 40,000 pending applicants in Region Four.

“That is why we have set up a portal….for those who are pending 2019 and prior because we also want to be able to clear all of those older applicants so that we can move the years upward,” he said.

Meanwhile, in acknowledging the long year of waiting for many, Minister within the Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues reminded the recipients of value of the accomplishment, which is geared at transforming lives of families.

“Giving you or giving a family a house lot, it has that effect that will multiply for years and for generations to come.

“For many of you this is the first asset that your family will have. Some of you are becoming first time property owners…You have made it to a point in your life where you are going to forever change the trajectory of your family by creating generational wealth,” Rodrigues said.

Apart from the house lots, the exercise also saw the ministry handing over 490 Certificate of Titles to home owners.