Perseverance, a Model Community

Jul 09, 2017 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Prime Minister Moses V. Nagamootoo

It is an ambitious plan to seek to provide housing for all Guyanese, especially for low-income

earners and youths, but Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, and Minister of Housing, Valerie Patterson, are both confident that together they could sustain this new drive to house our citizens.  They said as much when they launched “Housing Solutions 2017 and Beyond”.  That mammoth exhibition of affordable housing units held in May at Perseverance, EBD, was the start of a very extensive housing and social development programme.

Every government of Guyana has addressed the housing needs of our people, and they could all claim varying degrees of success.  Admittedly, housing is a social need that is never completely met, at least not until very long term plans are concretized.  When it is a problem like Guyana’s is, it does not go away.  Indeed we have come a long way from the days when whole families used to occupy sections of city pavements.  Others were condemned to live in hovels almost everywhere – in the city and its environs, in Berbice, Essequibo, Kwakwani, and interior areas past Bartica.

There are people still around who remember; who benefitted, from the pre-independence efforts at resolving the housing crisis under a previous Cheddi Jagan administration.  One solution had been the ‘range houses’ built in the city, plus other kinds of dwellings in the countryside, in places such as Black Bush Polder.  The other model used to address the housing problem was the 1976 “Feed, Clothe and House the Nation” drive under the Forbes Burnham government.  At that time, clay bricks (made from red clay and fired at factories located at West Demerara) were used on a wide scale.  Check Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara and Meadowbrook Gardens for the evidence.

SQUATTING

In 1992 Cheddi Jagan refocused on the housing drive (the population in the city and along the coastline had swollen).  A programme was implemented to regularise squatting areas which saw house lots being allocated on a wider scale.  An open lottery gave some spice to the drive and large numbers of persons were able to build their own homes. The then political elites and their friends cashed in as well, and helped themselves to large tracts of land, to posh, private plots over which the spectre of corruption still hovers.

According to Minister Bulkan, that model of handing out house lots ostensibly to create government housing schemes was flawed.  He disclosed that only 28,000 of the 63,000 house lots distributed are occupied. Many people just do not have the means to build their houses, and the prices that contractors demand are way beyond their pockets.

During the period 2011 to 2016 about 20,000 lots were distributed in 38 ‘schemes’ but only 4,000 houses were built.  A total of 4,200 acres of land were marked out for these schemes and about $13B was spent on infrastructural works, none of which was completed.  This Government now has to spend an additional $16M for proper roads and utilities.

NEW APPROACH

The minister had said that a new approach was needed to provide affordable and comfortable houses for the estimated 25,000 home-seekers whose applications were found gathering dust. So, the ministry started work on a State Paper on Housing to provide not only houses, but safe communities.  With the private construction and banking sectors driving the process, the new plan provides housing units – a combination of duplexes, townhouses and apartments, distinct from empty house lots.

Friday May 27, 2017 will forever be etched in my memory. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many smiling faces in one place. As I walked from building to building at the Housing Expo, I saw long lines of newlyweds, and mothers carrying babies, all waiting to sign up for loans from the local banks present. I observed the exciting twinkles of happiness as they viewed and touched the new specimens of household items on display.

Perseverance EBD is about to become an integrated, model community. In the midst of clusters of houses, playfields have been carved out, and space has been reserved for shopping complexes. Along the access road we passed an international hotel, an upscale Chinese restaurant, a Trinidadian-owned shopping complex, a medical university and site for a proposed hospital, an international Call Center, a building materials depot and a water park.  Soon, with new networks of roads, the East Bank and East Coast corridors will be linked to provide easier access for strategic services to the Perseverance community.

HAPPY FACES

That site had been identified by the previous government pre-2015 for 1000 homes.  50 turnkey houses were actually built, but they could not be occupied due to structural defects. When this problem came to our attention, the Coalition Government proceeded to have them corrected and then began to push construction of an additional 500 houses in the area. At the time of the Expo, 200 houses were at various stages of completion; several were completed and outfitted with solar energy. These were sold after the Exhibition for $6M to $12M.

During the event, one of the priests who offered prayers referred to the 83,000 sq. mile land mass of Guyana, and light-heartedly shared his vision of every Guyanese owning two houses. I echo his dream of a new Guyana where every family could have a chicken in the pot, a car in the garage, and another house in the backyard!

For now, the young couples I saw at the exhibition are anticipating their modest first home – either a cottage or an apartment. They are excited, and it’s no wonder there were so many happy faces at Perseverance.

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