Housing Ministry Marks Milestone: 800 Starter Homes Delivered Despite Land Challenges

The Ministry of Housing has handed over an estimated eight hundred starter homes since the initiative began in December 2021.  Each concrete home measures 430 square feet and comes with one bedroom, a laundry area, a living room space, a kitchenette and a bathroom.  The start of the housing program has highlighted several hiccups and discrepancies in land ownership and legal documents.  Administrator for the Housing Execution Unit at MIDH, Marisa Alamilla, indicated that while the ministry is not responsible for land distribution, it has worked closely with the Lands Department to assist the beneficiaries.

Marisa Alamilla, Administrator, Housing Execution Department: “These homes are handed to you with the expansion plans. Therefore there is a want for our people to move at their own pace in their own ability and then add on the extra rooms that is needed. One of the great things about the home is that you can add on any one room at any time after we hand you the keys. For us at housing we feel that this home offers more Belizeans an opportunity to move into a place where they can have something they can call their own and they made it their own. These are solid structures at the Ministry again we are thinking about preserving what we haver given you so that you can build on it. These homes will last for a long long time if you take care of them. A lot of people don’t understand that houses like everything requires maintenance. So they will need the persons who get them to take care of them and we felt that it’s easier for you to take care of a concrete home than it is for you to take care of a wooden home, that is way more cost effective for you to take care of a concrete home and so these homes offer you a future especially as as single mom which is a high portion of our recipients but it’s not the only portion. We have had recipients who are men who are single fathers, we have had older persons, we have had disabled persons who want to have some semblance of independence and be in their own space.”

Administrator Public Relations Officer for MIDH, Marisa Alamilla, has explained that the construction of homes and roads are not only benefiting the home owners.  She noted that the land owners in the construction areas are being motivated to develop their properties.

Marisa Alamilla, Administrator, Housing Execution Department: “We have built homes countrywide on people’s personal land and one of the things that I think we don’t share much at MIDH is the fact of the impact of that. Sometimes when we build a home let’s say in the Contiki area just for an example we had to put in a stretch of a mile of road and we’ve handed out that house about two years ago and if you go on that exact same road right now the development in the area is crazy, it’s phenomenal. I literally saw people starting to build while we were building just because the road was in place. And so there is far reaching capabilities for our program. Our program while yes it focuses on the home it focuses on building Belize. Building a community, building what you wouldn’t normally be able to access as a Belizean very few of us can go ahead an put in infrastructure to get our land. So if our land doesn’t have the infrastructure we have to sit and wait and hope that at some point we get that infrastructure. These homes allow MIDH to be able to go in , we build in the infrastructure to get to the home we are trying to build but it also allows for our regular Belizeans now to have access to their land. It instantly increases the value of their land because now they have access to it and they can build. And there’s a lot of Belizeans that can access financing but they won’t get the financing if they can’t access the area. So there’s a lot of Belizeans that have been able to access financing based on the fact that we have built a home.”

The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing is the portfolio of Julius Espat with support from CEO Victor Espat.