Hope has its first homeowners

The Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) housing project has its first prospective homeowners.

The first two persons to qualify and select their housing spots did so Saturday morning at HOPE’s first development at Vespera Gardens, Lancaster, St James.

Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance, Dwight Sutherland, was at the event to greet Shane Haynes, a 37-year-old Youth Commissioner attached to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, and Claire Walcott, a 31-year-old Accounts Clerk, as they toured the show house to visualise how their new homes would look. Both homeowners expressed their pleasure at having qualified for the housing project.

Sutherland noted that Government has embarked on a “10,000 housing silent revolution to provide housing for middle income and low income persons in the country”.

He highlighted that both homeowners were relatively young persons and were the age demographic to whom the Ministry is primarily looking to cater.

The Minister of Housing thanked the Chairman of HOPE Inc., Tony Hoyos, and his staff, as well as the new homeowners. “I want to thank these young people who have placed their hope in HOPE, in the hope of providing housing solutions for them and their families,” he added.

HOPE Inc. is a state-owned commercial entity. Its sites include Lancaster, which will provide 160 housing solutions; Pool, St. John, where 201 housing solutions will be erected by the end of the financial year and Colleton, St. John, where 85 houses will be provided.