HGP Nightly News – More than three-quarters of Guyana’s outstanding housing applications come from Region Four, placing the country’s most populated region at the centre of the Government’s effort to clear the national backlog.
President Irfaan Ali disclosed the scale of the demand during a broadcast on Thursday, while outlining plans to accelerate housing construction and provide thousands of social homes to vulnerable Guyanese.
The Government is targeting between 3,000 and 5,000 homes under the proposed social-housing programme, which Ali said would be launched shortly.
“We are identifying a number of social homes. We’re targeting between 3,000 to 5,000 such homes,” he said. “We’ll be setting up strict criteria for persons to have access to those homes.”
The President did not say how many of the homes would be built in Region Four, when construction would begin or how much the programme would cost.
The eligibility requirements also remain to be published. Those rules will determine who qualifies as vulnerable, whether recipients must contribute financially and how applicants will be selected if demand exceeds the available homes.
Region Four’s share of the backlog reflects both its population size and the pressure on land near the country’s main commercial and employment centres. Meeting that demand will require more than allocating house lots. New areas need roads, drainage, electricity, water and access to schools, healthcare and transportation.
The Government is turning to private contractors to help speed up the process.
Ali said more than 270 expressions of interest were submitted after contractors were invited to propose the construction of housing units at varying sizes and prices.
“We have received more than 270 expressions of interest to construct housing units,” he said.
According to the President, the initiative is intended to allow infrastructure development and home construction to proceed at the same time.
“This expression of interest was to help accelerate the development of areas and construction of homes simultaneously,” Ali explained.
That approach could reduce the period between allocation and occupancy. Its success, however, will depend on whether infrastructure keeps pace with house construction and whether selected contractors can deliver projects on schedule and within budget.
The Government has not disclosed how the 270 submissions will be assessed, how many contracts will be awarded or when construction is expected to start.
It also remains unclear how much of the planned work will directly reduce Region Four’s backlog.
