Govt Denies Housing Programme in Shambles

GOVERNMENT last week denied its housing programme was “a rather dismal picture” and claimed it has a “well-conceptualised and organised plan.” Parliamentary Secretary Mr. Leroy Scotland, chosen to defend the State’s housing programme against scathing opposition attacks in Parliament, called the opposition motion “baseless.” He referred to the building of claybrick roads and the development of wooden blades for glass louvre substitutes as examples of the drive to ensure that “shelter is within the reach of the small man.” Scotland’s maiden speech in Parliament was well-delivered but he was hard put to counter charges from Mrs. Janet Jagan of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Mr. Eusi Kwayana of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA). “The plight of the lower income groups should be of serious concern to all of us,” Mrs. Jagan advocated. She said the housing shortage had created “extremely difficult conditions for all” but felt it impacted more adversely on the unemployed and the under-employed. She claimed there was almost no housing available in Georgetown to the middle and lower income groups. Most workers have as a result been forced into the environs, she said. “This famous man who was going to be a ‘real man’ is going through severe burdens and is suffering from very poor housing conditions,” she charged. Mrs. Jagan accused government of not providing funds for housing and of using available finances to “keep the bureaucracy in place.” She suggested the State should construct a certain number of low rental units every year and subsidise the prices for low income groups. The private sector, she said, was building for the high income group, and the ‘nouveau riche’ was putting up ‘grand and beautiful’ homes. “We need a positive programme for public housing,” she said and criticised the current 14 per cent interest rate housing loans currently attract. Mrs. Jagan also called the $15,000 housing loan extended by the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund (SILWF) as too small. “Fifteen thousand dollars can’t even fill a dray cart with wood, she declared and disclosed that out of 16,749 loan applications the Fund approved last year, loans were granted to only four persons. Mr. Kwayana called the housing issue “a very painful question” and said many persons, mainly in Georgetown, live a nomadic existence. “Many are suffering great personal humiliation as a result of this housing question,” he said. Kwayana suggested government action against the high cost of building materials and asked: “Why can’t the government financial geniuses devise a financial revolving fund for housing?” He felt a facility could be created out of the excess liquidity plaguing banks.

CONDITIONS BY SHARIEF KHAN

Government, he pointed out, is hemmed in by obligations in the constitution on the right to housing. “We have a clear policy and constitutional foundation for the kind of action the motion is calling for,” he argued. Scotland however, contended that the 1986 Meadowbrook Gardens housing scheme was “a watershed for the tremendous housing programme which followed.” He disclosed over $2,2m has been spent by government to develop 28 aided selfhelp units at De Kenderen on the West Coast, Demerara and said government had made many efforts to develop housing.