Port Loyola Families Get a Fresh Start With New Land Ownership  

What happened in Port Loyola on Wednesday wasn’t just another land certificate handout, it was a reset button for hundreds of families. Three hundred residents walked away not only with paperwork, but with a path forward. In a community that has long struggled for resources, becoming a landowner means options: a chance to build, to plant roots, and to give their children a more secure future. Area Representative Gilroy Usher summed it up with his own story. He remembers the day he first received land, how it shifted his life and opened doors he didn’t even know existed. For many Port Loyola families, that turning point starts now.

 

Gilroy Usher, Area Representative, Port Loyola

“I know of the hardship of caring for one’s family. When a person doesn’t own a whole, I know about whole shrimp, which leaves practically more money. To address the basic needs of the family, including a P Protocol, its own home. I know about squatting to ease the heavy burden of renting a house when a person can, which a person can never own and have to vac, have to vac once the occupant cannot meet the rental agreement, regardless of how long someone has been living in a renting post. Luckily for me, instead of having more choice but to squat in a swampy era with less than desirable housing as court of people have been doing for years, mail to survive, one of my aunts gave me permission to build a small cloud house temporarily. Temporarily. No post, no cement post,nothing like that temporarily on her. At number three Pelican Street until I got the opportunity to own the present land on which I built ahold for my family. Stories like this serve as a reminder that land is a very precious and scarce commodity. My advice to those of you who will be receiving your land documents at this ceremony shortly, and all other Belizeans who have obtained land from the government or through inheritance, is therefore, do not sell your land. I repeat, do not sell your land to anyone for a quick money. You’ll, you will regret that decision later.”

 

For the families in Port Loyola, those land papers aren’t just documents, they’re the first real chance to build something of their own and hold on to it for generations.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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