By Malaika Laurent
Caribbean Net News Dominica Correspondent
Email: malaika@caribbeannetnews.com

ROSEAU, Dominica: A National Shelter Policy is now underway under the Shelter Development Programme, a component of government’s highly promoted ‘Housing Revolution’ to improve the dire accommodation needs in Dominica.

The government signed an agreement this week with a Canadian consultancy firm – Habico Planning and Architecture Ltd - which will prepare the document to chart the path forward for the Housing sector.
Housing Minister Reginald Austrie at the signing ceremony noted that the Ministry is already ahead of the proposed NSP.

“It seems today that the housing revolution is formally accepted and adopted. There was a plan, there was a programme and a process by which this thing is supposed to evolve and develop.

“And here we are today, probably where we should have been three or four years ago, so we are infact ahead of the times as far as that is concerned,” he said.

However, he highlighted specific points which he expects to be addressed in the policy document including; the use of standard building codes, the demand for new housing, and the upgrade of existing housing.

Also, a review of the land market, a review of the construction sector, the legal issues affecting access to developed land, identifying constraints to housing access, issues of informal settlements and factors.

The government entered into a joint loan and grant agreement with the Caribbean Development Bank to secure funding of EC$7.212 million to undertake the NSP under the umbrella of the housing revolution.

“The consultancy will identify some of those issues and probably give us some guidelines as to how we can move forward in correcting some of those situations,” Austrie said.

Under the government proclaimed Housing Revolution, EC$12 million has already been made available to the AID Bank and Government Housing Loans Board for lending to certain categories of public and private sector personnel.

In addition, EC$1 million worth of building materials will be available for the assistance in the Home Repair and Maintenance programme.

The Squatter Regularisation programme has also been initiated; land has been made available to persons within squatter settlements at EC$1 per square foot.

A joint loan and grant agreement was signed between he government and Caribbean Development Bank of EC$7.2 million to undertake the Shelter Development Project.

An initial amount of EC$32.4 million will finance Government’s Housing Revolution. The Government of Venezuela is providing $29.4 million dollars in grants and loan while the Chinese Government is providing a grant of $3 million dollars.