Abstract

Over the past two decades several new housing areas have been established in Guyana using abandoned sugar cane lands on the low coastal belt. The establishment of sustainable housing schemes/communities was one of the main strategies embarked upon by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA), the principal institution responsible for land use planning, land allocation, and sustainable housing development, to address the problem of acute shortage in housing stock. The purpose of this study was to examine the issues that have constrained the development of sustainable housing schemes/communities with a view to proposing some guiding principles that could strengthen the process. Desk review and case studies of Diamond and La Parfaite Harmonie, which contain two of the recently established low- and middle-income schemes/communities, were used to obtain data. The results showed that while the housing strategy undoubtedly impacted the two housing schemes/communities positively in terms of the number of house lots/houses allocated, their functionality has been compromised by some systemic issues. These included shortage of critical social infrastructure, an unhealthy and unsafe environment, lack of economic opportunities, and limited capacity of the allottees to construct and occupy houses. The issues resulted from failure to observe and integrate some land use planning and sustainable housing development requirements and principles in the housing development strategy. To adequately address these issues, the economic and social sustainability of households and planning and decision-making based on the physical characteristics of the land are two of the main ideals that must be adopted in Guyana’s housing development strategy.