Women, youth empowered through land ownership

Women and youth across Guyana continue to be empowered through land and home ownership, says Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues.

Speaking at the ministry’s Dream Realised Housing Drive in Region Six earlier today, the minister said the ministry, through the Central Housing and Planning Authority, has allocated an overall total of 48,661 house lots over the past five years.

She noted that between today and tomorrow, 1,800 house lots will be allocated within Region Six.

“And all of these things help to alleviate some of the social ills in our society, like domestic violence, abuse and freeing women from financial dependence on someone else. We’re also pleased to provide land ownership to young people. Over 50 per cent of all of the allocations that we’ve made in the past five years have gone to young people between the ages of 21 to 35, giving our young population a longer time to acquire wealth over a period of their lifetime. Giving them that responsibility early, of home ownership and property ownership,” she said.

Through the Dream Realised initiative, the ministry is close to meeting its target of delivering 50,000 house lots within five years.

“So that tells you, if you do the math that by the end of these two days… we are still months away from the end of our first term and we have delivered our 50,000 house lots in our manifesto. So that is important to us, achieving our mandate, keeping our promises. It’s important to us because it’s our collateral, because it is our history of achievements that goes to an election. And so when people go to elect a government of their choice, then you have to carefully examine who’s working and who’s not. Who has ideas and who do not,” Rodrigues noted.

Housing and Water Minister Colin Croal, in his remarks, said the initiative continues to meet the needs of people across all administrative regions, clearing the huge backlog of pending applicants within the system.

He noted that there has been a major improvement from over 74,000 pending applicants over the past few years.