HGP Nightly News – A political storm is brewing over a small settlement near the Eugene F. Correia International Airport, and at its centre are two opposition MPs demanding that Guyana’s historic housing budget deliver for the people who need it most. MPs Sherod Duncan and Juretha Fernandes have fired back at what they describe as “deeply misleading” claims attributed to the airport’s Public Communications Consultant regarding their recent visit to the Ogle settlement.
In a strongly worded statement, the parliamentarians made clear that their oversight visit was never about encouraging unlawful occupation, it was about holding the government accountable for its promises. “We have never condoned any situation that compromises public safety or aviation security,” the MPs stated.
“Nor would we support conditions that leave Guyanese families living below acceptable standards.” The families at Ogle, they argue, are not newcomers. They have been present for several years and form part of a wider, established community. The MPs contend that if safety concerns are genuine, they must be applied consistently, not selectively. But the deeper issue, according to Duncan and Fernandes, lies not in where these families currently live, but in where they were supposed to move.
Several families in the settlement, the MPs revealed, have already paid substantial sums, reportedly up to $1.1 million, for house lots elsewhere. Those lots remain without roads, water, electricity, or any basic infrastructure. Land paid for. Promises made. Nothing delivered. “This is a sequencing and delivery failure that raises serious questions about value for money and planning,” the MPs said.
The timing could not be more pointed. Guyana has just passed a $1.558 trillion national budget, including a record $159 billion allocation to the housing sector. That’s nearly 160 billion dollars earmarked for housing, yet families who paid for land remain stranded without services.
The MPs raised additional concerns: rising rental costs with no stabilization framework, changes to the eligibility age for house lot applications from 18 to 21 that exclude young adults from independently accessing state land, and the puzzling failure to allocate nearby turn-key housing units to families residing adjacent to those developments.
The families at Ogle, they noted, have expressed willingness to relocate, under reasonable and serviced conditions. They are not asking for handouts. They are asking for what they paid for.Duncan and Fernandes are now calling on the Minister of Housing to take concrete steps: ensure that lands already paid for are fully serviced within defined timelines, provide transparent updates on allocations, review the eligibility age requirements, and deploy social intervention funds, including the $900 million allocated to Men on Mission in Budget 2026, in a transparent and accountable manner.
“Guyana’s housing challenge is not solved by rhetoric,” the statement concluded. “It is solved by planning, sequencing, accountability, and delivery.”
