Home Improvement Subsidy: Sophia beneficiaries receive building materials 

A number of low-income residents of Sophia, Georgetown, on Thursday received building materials to repair and/or expand their homes as part of the Housing and Water Ministry’s Home Improvement Subsidy initiative.
Each recipient’s selection of materials was chosen to address their specific home improvement needs and included items such as timber, concrete blocks, sand, cement, stone, zinc sheets, louvre windows, bolts, nuts and nails.
The delivery was overseen by staff of the Central Housing and Planning Authority’s (CH&PA) Community Development Department.
A beneficiary, Sidney Thomas, expressed his appreciation for the materials, noting that his house has existed for almost three decades and has seen its fair share of issues adversely impacting his family’s comfort, including roof leaks.
“I built this house like 25-30 years ago and especially this wall, it’s deteriorating and at the front some of the wood falling off so [the new materials] would help me a lot,” Thomas said.
“I think it’s a very good initiative to help people who are really in need because some people can’t really afford to do the repairs by themselves and it would help to raise their standard of living,” Thomas said.
The receipt of these materials will benefit Wayne Joseph as well, another Sophia resident who had already replaced walls at the front and the side of his house and staircases with timber previously provided through this programme.
Now, with the addition of zinc sheets for roof repairs, he can continue enhancing his home.
The Home Improvement Subsidy forms part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded Adequate and Affordable Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme (AHUAP) that aims to enable persons in the target boundaries to receive up to $500,000 in materials to upgrade their homes.
The boundary currently encompasses the La Parfaite Harmonie Housing Development in Region Three; Georgetown to Grove on the East Bank of Demerara, Region Four; Georgetown to La Bonne Intention and nineteen other select communities on the East Coast of Demerara, Region Four.
The eligible repairs include walls, floors, electrical systems, sanitation improvements, and other non-cosmetic enhancements in line with the program’s goals.
The other aspect of the AHUAP is the Core Home Support initiative that aims to help low-income vulnerable Guyanese in poor living conditions.
To further enhance this programme, the CH&PA, under the purview of the Housing Ministry, on Wednesday launched the Core Home Support and Home Improvement Subsidy mobile app to allow persons to easily monitor the status of their applications.
Now available on Google Play Store and Apple store, the app gives applicants access to real-time updates on when they will receive the keys to their core home or materials to enhance their home.