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Mother of two frustrated at snail pace of Govt construction
Second Low Income Settlement Core houses…
Several potential home owners under the Government of Guyana /International Development Bank (IDB) Second Low Income Settlement (LIS) Programme in Westminster Phase One are frustrated at the pace at which the Ministry of Housing is undertaking the building of the core homes which cost $1.2M.
Niambe Crawford
The Programme is run by the Ministry of Housing and Water’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) on behalf of the government, and targets prospective allottees who are eligible for a core house to be constructed under the Programme.
One of the successful applicants who is affected, Niambe Crawford, a security guard who has a house lot at 1704 Westminster Phase One, West Bank Demerara, said that after she applied in April 2010 under the Second Low Income Settlement Programme she was successful.
Adding that she then paid $100,000 which she borrowed from the bank, Ms Crawford said that the representative from the Ministry of Housing told her at a meeting on December last, that the house would take approximately three months to complete. However, to date this has not been the case.
She spoke of being given the royal run around at the Ministry of Housing while enquiring about the delay of the core house completion.
“I have been calling them all the time. When you go is one thing; they telling you next three weeks and when you go three months later, the house standing the same way.”
Ms Crawford said that since the beginning of the construction, the frame is standing and there is nothing else inside, no windows, no doors, no flooring and a partially dug septic tank.
The frustrated mother of two further said that after she contacted the contractor who was involved in building the house for the Ministry of Housing, she was told by the contractor that “they were not giving him money and he could not continue the works…and is only one contractor they assigned to the West Minister Housing scheme to build 16 core houses.”
She noted that next week Wednesday she is being asked to remove from her rented apartment and she was hoping that the house would have been finished. However, many of the successful applicant houses have not even started as yet.
“All of the other applicants don’t even know what is going on, they seem to don’t tell anyone what is going on.”
She said that only one house was completed for a man who was visually impaired.
Applicants who were successful in their application for the Second Low Income Settlement Programme which is a core house pilot project are being given homes which are not fully completed since it is a starter house which can be expanded over time, until completed to the owner’s satisfaction.
The Programme provides the basic floor plan, with options for expansion. The core house is supposed to contains a sanitary block, multi-purpose sink, electrical fittings and plumbing.
The core house will assist very low income families to commence construction, and complete the building as their affordability allows, at their own pace.
Under US$27.9M Second Low Income Settlement Programme (LIS) Programme which was launched in June 2009, several housing schemes are to be developed. It is expected to improve low-income families’ access to enhanced living conditions through housing solutions and access to house lots.
According to the Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, during his presentation of the 2010 National Budget in Parliament, it was disclosed that $2.8B will be spent in the housing sector.
However, under the Second Low Income Settlement Programme, $1.5B will be spent to create more than 1,500 new house lots.
The Core House Pilot which is funded under the GOG/IDB Second Low Income Settlements Programme is intended to address the issues of affordability and sustainability for low income households.
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