Housing Ministry to focus on “out of hand” squatting on Linden-Soesdyke Highway – Croal

…some 285 households to be relocated from EBD riverbank

The coming months will see the Housing and Water Ministry directing its attention towards the regularisation of squatters along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, to regain control of a situation which subject minister Collin Croal has described as getting “out of hand.”
This comes on the heels of President Dr Irfaan Ali disclosing on Tuesday that the Housing Ministry and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) have finalised the first course of action which would see the development of infrastructure for the creation of 500 new house lots on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway to address the squatting issues there.
During a visit to the highway in January last year, the Head of State had announced the establishment of three new formal housing settlements on the highway to relocate the scores of squatters currently occupying lands there.
According to Minister Croal on Wednesday, “…in our opinion, the Soesdyke Highway, per se, has gotten out of hand.”
The Housing Minister told a closing press conference for the year 2023 that the Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) is working in collaboration with the Lands and Surveys Commission to consolidate the scattered squatters on the highway.
The highway is currently lined with hundreds of persons who have illegally taken residence in scattered areas, and in some cases forming an entire unregulated community.
Previously, authorities had regularised some of these communities, but persons have started to expand those areas, thus continuing the squatting culture.

Since taking office in 2020, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration has been working on regularising housing developments across the country. Government had stated that it would not be recognising any new squatting areas, and would only regularise “established” settlements.

Informal settlements
In fact, during Wednesday’s press conference, Croal disclosed that there were 21 recognised informal settlements when Government took office; and, to date, the regularization exercises have been completed on 13 of these areas. He added that the Housing Ministry would be targeting the remaining eight settlements as part of its 2024 work programme.
“And when we say regularization, it will mean not necessarily that you will be regularized where you’re at, but it can also mean relocation. So, we have taken stock of the persons who occupy the particular area; we have engaged, we have numbered the structures, we have put the persons through the system – they have to go through the system of being like a pending applicant,” he noted.
The Minister went on to note that when these squatters are entered into the system, if they are found to have an allocation in their names, they would not be recognised through the regularisation programme.

EBD riverfront squatters
Meanwhile, another area on which the Housing Ministry would be focusing this year is the removal of squatters from along the East Bank Demerara River; that is, those occupying the sea dam area between Herstelling and Diamond.
Croal disclosed during Wednesday’s press conference that there are at least 285 households along the Grove, Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Farm, Herstelling and Covent Garden Sea Dam, and they would have to be relocated.
“We have numbered those persons, we have engaged all those persons, we have allocated most of those persons for those who are getting the land. We have also sent to the bank for those who are interested in the Housing Programme. All of these have been done already by the Community Development Department…It will be taking up our time and our engagement over this quarter, because now that we have done this initial task, we will now move aggressively to address [the relocation of] those persons,” he posited.
There were two options given to the sea dam squatters for their relocation: take up lands, or the pre-built homes being offered by the Ministry. According to Croal, they have identified lands at Little Diamond, East Bank Demerara for this, and have already conducted allocation exercises for some of those persons. Each plot of land allocated measures 42X80 square ft.
With regards to the home construction, the Minister revealed that letters were given to those persons to take to the bank.
“That’s where we’re at. So, we’re currently reviewing the bank’s review of if they’re able to prequalify these people, because some of them are established persons who are working [in secure jobs], so they could obviously be prequalified,” Croal stated.
Last year the Housing Ministry had engaged the families, during which they were facilitated to lodge application for house lots, and register their interest for turnkey homes or residential lots. At an exercise in October, close to 100 families had initiated the land allocation process after previously expressing interested in land. Also, another 45 families had registered for low-income housing units.
In January 2023, an inventory found approximately 317 structures on that EBD stretch – 57 of which are owned by Venezuelan immigrants. These include 15 structures on the reserves at Little Diamond; 49 structures at Great Diamond; 96 structures at Grove; 86 structures at Herstelling Sea Dam; 45 structures at Farm Sea Dam, and seven structures at Covent Garden. Of the 317 structures, close to 30 were unoccupied. (G8)