Over 1200 squatters regularised since 2020 as clearance of housing backlog continues – Min Croal

– meets with Ogle Airport management on issues of zoning, squatters

With between 1200 and 1500 squatters regularised by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government since 2020. The Government has also assured that pending applicants are being given due attention as efforts continue to clear the housing backlog.

In an interview with the media on Monday, Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal explained that so far, the Government has been able to regularise about 1500 lots in squatting areas and spoke of efforts to address squatting.
However, Minister Croal also reiterated the Government’s position that no new squatting will be recognised. He warned that persons who go into new, unoccupied areas without approval from the Government, risk having their structures demolished.
“Since we’re in office, within the four years. We have regularised, that is we’ve been able to process the ownership of at least about 1200 to 1500. Moving is an ongoing process, so that has been happening continuously,” Croal said.
“We’ve been saying that no new squatting will be recognised. So, if you start going into new areas that previously didn’t have occupancy, obviously we have our full enforcement that is implemented. And if we have to break, so be it. But we have a more compassionate way whereby we’ve been working with persons who lived in an area for a long period of time.”
The Minister also addressed a misconception in society, that implies squatters who are relocated end up with a better deal than those who actually wait on housing for their land. According to the Minister, nothing could be further from the truth as both squatters and pending applications are being addressed by the Government. The task of moving squatters is both time-consuming and expensive for the Ministry of Housing, but Croal made it clear that it is an ongoing task.
“It’s a lot of work. It’s an ongoing task. You have, in addition to some other established areas, you’d be surprised people are living there and they don’t have ownership. I’ll give you an example of the last two. I was in Enmore. You see regular houses, persons have all the infrastructure, but they don’t have the ownership. Then you would have seen with his Excellency, Mon Repos North.”
“In addition to that we have a number of areas we’re working with, where we’re looking to streamline because we’ve given a policy decision that we can proceed to regularise. Where we can’t, then we have to do a relocation plan, which is time-consuming. But it’s an ongoing process and we’re working towards that,” he further said.
As a matter of fact, the Minister recently met with the Ogle Airport management and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA). During those discussions, squatting around the airport was one of the topics that came up.
“In relation to around the parameters of the Ogle Airport. On one end they’re squatting and, on another end, in the industry vicinity, of persons living there for a long time, being pretty close to the airstrip,” Croal explained.
A major issue that was also addressed during the meeting was the subject of reviewing the Ogle Airport Zoning Regulations, based on its operations. Croal explained that the tripartite meeting was aimed at, among other things discussing the revising of the zoning regulations.
“There are many uses of that regulation. You have the airport itself, us in terms of approvals and civil aviation. And so that’s one of the things that was discussed. The modality moving forward, how we’re going to update that,” Croal said.