14 people, one room: Housing and hope in Guyana

Credit: Inter American Development Bank

“We used to be choked up in one room – my brothers, my sisters, my cousins and my parents,” Lendize Daniels recalls.
Today, she lives in a household of just four: herself, her partner and two children. She also has a supply of fresh water when she turns on the tap, a stove to cook on, and access to sanitation. These are amenities that some might take for granted, but not Daniels, and not in her reality.
In the hinterland of Guyana, where the population is predominantly Amerindian, nearly two-thirds of the people live in inadequate and overcrowded housing. Six in ten people do not have access to safe drinking water, mainly due to issues related to the remoteness of the region. Poverty is commonplace.
However, the tide is beginning to turn for some hinterland communities. To date, the Sustainable Housing for the Hinterland Programme, or SHHP, has changed the lives of some 350 families, providing adequate housing, safe drinking water, electricity, sanitation and recreational spaces. The programme’s objective, however, goes beyond alleviating poverty; it also seeks to empower residents – particularly women – to take ownership of their communities and their lives.
The SHHP, funded with a US$3.1 million loan from the IDB and executed by Guyana’s Ministry of Communities, focuses on Regions 1 and 9, two of the country’s poorest. Most people living in these areas earn less than the national minimum wage, equivalent to approximately US$172 per month. Agriculture serves as the primary form of employment for Indigenous people in Guyana, but income remains unpredictable, given that residents depend exclusively on rain-fed farming.
“We used to be choked up in one room – my brothers, my sisters, my cousins and my parents,” Lendize Daniels recalls.
The programme begins at the local level, recognising the power of the communities themselves to resolve housing and related issues. Communities determine the households most in need of intervention. Then residents, including women, help design and build houses with materials funded by the programme. In some locations, up to 87% of households in the selected communities benefited.
At the close of the pilot phase in 2015, women involved in the decision-making process began setting their sights on bigger goals. Daniels, who no longer must trek 800 metres to reach drinking water, now lives in a house that is closer to work opportunities and her children’s school. She now feels motivated to pursue her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Overall, women reported feeling included, comfortable, safe and less burdened.
The SHHP forms part of Guyana’s ten-point plan for the hinterland, which identifies adequate housing as a basic building block of rural and Indigenous socio-economic development. (IDB)