Single mother, siblings among new Essequibo house lot awardees 

For years, single parent and mother of two, Shawnella Johnson has been sharing the same space with her mother and dreamt of being independent so that she can provide a more comfortable space for her young children.

Johnson is now one step closer to achieving her dream as she was allocated a house lot on the second day of the Ministry of Housing and Water’s ‘Dream Realised’ housing drive in Region Two on Saturday.

Johnson applied for a house lot about four years ago and she said the process “wasn’t too hard.”

“It’s a great achievement for me to get my own house lot.

“I feel great and excited. All the wonderful words you can think about,” Johnson told the News Room.

She plans to start building as soon as she can.

Johnson is among 500 persons who were allocated house lots in the Onderneeming area.

She joined siblings, Indira Doliveria and Samuel Doliveria, who are on a mission to get their homes as they plan for the future and families of their own.

“I always want to own a land because in the future I want to get marry and so on so I would like to be a proud home owner,” Indira said.

While, “I feel happy so I can start building my own home,” Samuel, a father of three, said.

Addressing those gathered, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal said that the ministry has committed to address pending applications in all regions, bringing the backlog closer to the year of 2024.

In region two, Croal said there were more than 2,000 pending applications as of December 31, 2024.

“Today is the day you have been waiting for,” he told the gathering.

Since 2020 to date, Croal highlighted that the government has invested close to $250 billion into the housing sector and with 41,000 house lot distributed they are closer to achieving the target of 50,000 by 2025.

But before these lots are allocated, Croal said significant investment is also made to develop the areas to build out roads, drainage and ensure utilities are in place.

“So when you are allocated and you don’t make use of your land space you are also depriving others…because there maybe others that are in far more need for it,” Croal said.

Noting that the government has been “compassionate” to ensure home ownership, Croal reminded that squatting will not be recognised.

“We are working with those where we have squatting but we are not going to recongise any new squatting,” Croal warned.

Further, persons who are allocated house lots this year will be signing for their agreements of sale by July 2025 the latest, Croal said.