Ministry mulling building homes to relocate
Residents wishing to relocate from shacks they are occupying at the corner of Lombard and Broad streets, Georgetown, may soon be able to do so with the help of the Ministry of Communities’ Department of Housing and the Ministry of Public Health.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Public Health on Monday, both it and the Ministry of Communities’ Department of Housing have committed to improving the lives of the residents, who have expressed the desire to have “turnkey” homes built for the 56 families living in the area. “We are looking at the possibility of building core homes so that when we remove the people from here, we’re going to put them in a house rather than [giving them a piece of] land,” Minister within the Ministry of Communities, with responsibility for Housing, Valarie Patterson is reported to have said during a recent visit to the settlement.
The statement said Patterson and Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence met with the residents to “iron out” some of the burning issues faced by several of them, who have applied for house lots and are impatient at the slow processing their applications.
Lawrence, who previously served as Minister of Social Protection, had met with the residents on several occasions, during which time she had committed to improving their living standards. In September, 2016, Lawrence had led a team from the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to the area as part of their first country visit to Guyana. A statement from the IACHR on the September 21 to 23 visit said in part, “during its visit to the neighbourhood of Lombard Street, the IACHR delegation was shocked by the extreme poverty and precarious living conditions of its inhabitants. The community comprises approximately 40 adults and 80 children with clear housing, sanitation, and health problems, as well as limited work opportunities and scant social services provided by the State.”
Several visits to the area by Stabroek News saw the residents publicly declaring their request from land on which they can establish their homes.
Lawrence, as Social Protection Minister, had explained to Stabroek News that the community