The Care Home project of the Cooperation Department, to provide houses for those left homeless by the floods of 2018, has hit a major milestone with the completion of 2,000 houses across the State. The State government is expected to officially hand over the keys to the beneficiary of the 2,000th house in early July.

The project witnessed the coming together of cooperative societies at the grassroots- level and organisations like the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society and Cooperative Academy of Professional Education on a voluntary basis to provide technical guidance for the project. The Department of Cooperation provided ₹5 lakh for each house, with the local cooperative societies pitching in with their profit shares. Engineering students helped out with the preparation of the plans for the houses.

“Unlike usual housing projects, there was no set model for the houses. A beneficiary council was formed at the local level with representatives of cooperatives, panchayat representatives and the beneficiaries, in which each of the beneficiaries were asked about the kind of houses they wanted. The plan was prepared as per their requirements and considering the geography of the area, as many of these are flood-prone,” says an official.

Gopalakrishnan from Cheruthana in Alappuzha district, whose family is one of the beneficiaries of the project, says that he no longer fears floods as he has got a flood-resilient house under the project.

“We got our house last year and since then there has been no fear of floods. A lot of work was done on the ground, using rings and other methods to prevent flooding. The house itself stands a few feet above the ground, on pillars. The Chingoli cooperative society helped with the funding and construction,” says Gopalakrishnan.

In the second phase of the project, apartment complexes will be built in each of the districts for the homeless.