A total of 6,160 people have already registered online for emergency housing with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing. Minister Diana Pokie announced this on Tuesday in Parliament during the budget debate.
Theminister acknowledged that there is a severe housing shortage in the country. According to her, various initiatives have been taken in recent years to address this shortage, but some have been successful while others have not. She further noted that housing policy stands or falls on the availability of data on people seeking housing.
That is why an application was recently developed, and 6,160 applications for emergency housing have since been submitted through it. In addition, 607 applications for construction subsidies have been submitted. “All of these applications must first be screened.” The ministry is currently training staff so that these applications can be screened. Pokie also announced that SRD 250 million has been allocated to the National Housing Fund, and SRD 53 million has been set aside to complete the Koela construction project, which will consist of approximately 94 homes.
The ministry, in collaboration with the Public Housing Foundation—an agency under the ministry—has outlined a plan to build social housing. As part of this plan, the ministry intends to use its own budget to build approximately 312 housing units spread across the entire country. In addition, the Affordable Housing Project (AHP), which had been on hold for several years, is being implemented once again.
This project was not carried out according to schedule, which meant that the target of 3,775 housing units was not met in recent years. This project will be financed by a loan from the Islamic Development Bank in the amount of USD 35 million.
