Government will be rolling out Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded projects that will not only subsidize home improvements for persons in low income communities, but will also provide 250 core homes for those who qualify.
This announcement was made at a press conference held at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) on Tuesday.
There, Junior Minister of Communities Valarie Patterson unveiled the Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Program.
Besides the core homes, she also revealed that 2,000 homeowners will be recipients of the subsidy.
Deputy Director for Community Development, Donnel Bess-Bascom explained the criteria for the home improvement subsidy.
“This project also targets person who qualify for low incomes, who are 18 years and older, the applicants must be living on the lot or in the building that they are applying for the improvements for…We have also started an initiative to make applications forms as accessible as possible. All the local democratic organs or as we say local authorities within the project area will be used as distribution centres for the application forms” Bess-Bascom disclosed.
The officials explained that persons can receive up to $500,000 in building materials for improving their homes, in keeping with the subsidy. They must, however, cover all labour costs.
The programme is limited to persons from select communities in Georgetown, the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara and the West Demerara area.
CH&PA was asked to explain the reasoning for the programme’s limited scope, to the exclusion of other parts of Guyana.
Chief Development Planner Germene Stewart noted that this is because the monies come from the reformulated loan for the Sheriff Street and Mandela upgrades.
The application period will run from November 1 to February 1, 2019. It was explained that completed forms must be submitted at the CH&PA head office.
