New homes for Yabra
While plans continue full steam ahead for the construction of satellite towns outside Belize City to address the pressing housing needs of a growing population, city residents also stand to benefit from the government’s commitment to build homes for Belizeans. Today Area Representative for the Albert Division Mark Espat launched a project which is part of his vision for a revitalized Yarborough.
The Yarborough Development Complex consists of fifteen thousand square feet of reclaimed land as the site of a middle income housing subdivision and the upgrading and construction of sporting facilities in the area.
Mark Espat, Area Representative, Albert Division
“We have consulted extensively on this project. We have been engaged in consultations for the last several months with the Ministry of Works, with the Ministry of Natural Resources, with the Belize City Council, with the Yabra Sporting Club and certainly through our Albert Committee. Certainly we are convinced that we will be able to achieve the three things we set out to do: cater to middle income housing, cater to additional recreational facilities in terms of a park in front of the sea and also to improve the Yabra Sporting Complex.”
A total of fourteen, two and three bedroom houses will be built at an estimated cost of six hundred thousand dollars. The basketball court and the upgrading of the football field will cost between fifty to seventy five thousand dollars. The project is just one of the eighteen commitments Mark Espat, the area representative made to residents of the Albert Division. However, some residents News Five spoke with off camera said although they welcome the recreational facilities in the division, they are concerned about the construction of small homes in a coastal part of the city which may be affected by hurricanes.
Mark Espat
“In fact all of the city sits on the Caribbean coast and that is something we just can’t do anything about.”
The Prime Minster says while he agrees that the threat of hurricanes is always a consideration, and the government is addressing this with its major housing development at mile 31, there will always be the need for more housing within the city limits.
Said Musa, Prime Minister
“I mean who wouldn’t want to live on the foreshore? Who wouldn’t want to live at the Fort? And yes, we will always have the threat of hurricanes but if we build nice complete homes that can withstand hurricanes and the people decide that they have to evacuate if it’s a serious hurricane that’s the only way we can live in Belize. There is no other way to plan. But I agree with you that the main thrust has to be the new settlements in the interior where it’s safe from hurricanes.”
Espat said the fourteen families who will get the homes have not been chosen yet and that the process will be carried out by the Albert Committee and Development Finance Corporation. Other improvement plans for the division include the rehabilitation of the southern foreshore sea wall and assistance to the James Garbutt School and the St. John’s Cathedral restoration.
Construction of the new homes for Yarborough will begin in a couple of months and work on the sporting facilities is starting as early as next month.
