Dear Editor,
The article “Region Four drives 78,000-house-lot backlog” (December 27, 2025) demands deeper scrutiny, as it exposes not only the scale of Guyana’s housing challenges but also a troubling absence of policy clarity, transparency, and equity under the current administration.
During the last election campaign, the government promised the construction of some 40,000 houses; an ambitious pledge that now appears more rhetorical than realistic. It is therefore alarming that the Minister of Housing is only now announcing engagements with agencies to identify and release lands. This sequence betrays a fundamental lack of preparedness. Serious housing policy begins with secured land banks, infrastructure planning, and financing models, not post-election improvisation. The contradiction underscores a lacklustre and reactive approach to governance.
The oft-cited figure of over 78,000 pending housing applications, while striking, is rendered largely meaningless without proper context. Minister Collin Croal is yet to inform the nation how many applications were received between 2020 and 2025, disaggregated by year and by region. Equally absent is demographic data: the number of single women applicants, married couples, and young Guyanese who applied at the eligible age of 21 and are now years, if not decades, older, still waiting. Without such disaggregation, the public cannot assess equity, fairness, or administrative efficiency.
This lack of transparency stands in sharp contrast to the approach taken by the Coalition Government upon assuming office in 2015. At that time, approximately 60,000 pending housing applications were inherited, some dating as far back as 1997. The policy response was clear and deliberate: applications were to be addressed in a fair, systematic, and transparent manner, with efforts made to regularise backlogs while restoring public confidence in the allocation process. Importantly, the emphasis was on order, equity, and accountability; not political spectacle.
It is therefore worth asking whether any Coalition Government Ministers were accused of acquiring vast swathes of land within CH&PA housing schemes to construct apartment buildings or luxury developments. That comparison is instructive, particularly given the growing public perception that lands earmarked for housing are now disproportionately benefiting those in public office or those with privileged access to power.
The current concentration of over 52,000 applications in Region Four is not accidental. It reflects decades of uneven development and the state’s failure to decentralise economic opportunities. Yet the Minister’s declaration that all other regions will achieve a 100% clearance while Region Four’s backlog will merely be “reduced” signals resignation to inequality rather than a credible plan to resolve it.
More troubling still is the transformation of housing schemes into spaces dominated by apartment complexes and upscale properties. Lands designated for modest housing solutions have increasingly been absorbed by luxurious developments, while teachers, nurses, public servants, single mothers, and young families remain on waiting lists without so much as a phone call. This raises profound ethical and governance questions about who the housing programme truly serves.
In its current form, the Ministry of Housing does not appear to prioritise the working class or the vulnerable. Instead, it increasingly serves wealth and the wealthier, facilitating commercial gains and profit-driven ventures through state resources—at the expense of taxpayers and social equity.
Housing is a social good and a developmental necessity, not merely a commercial commodity. If the government is serious about addressing the housing crisis, it must move beyond vague figures and political promises and present a transparent, data-driven, and equitable national housing policy. Anything less will continue to erode public trust and leave thousands of Guyanese waiting in frustration.
Yours truly,
Anette Ferguson
