315 More Units To Be Built Under Social Housing Programme

Another 315 dwelling units will be delivered to indigent families across the island under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), by the end 2022/23.

The Government has targeted the construction of five units per year, across each of the island’s 63 constituencies, under the programme.

“We are going to complete the 315 that we had originally allocated…and then we will start the other 315; that’s the other five per constituency,” said Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness.

“So, we would have done 10 per constituency by the end…of the new financial year coming and then after that, we are going to seek to expand it,” he noted.

Mr. Holness said that the Government is looking to collaborate with the private sector to increase the number of units available and a modality is being worked out to facilitate the partnership.

He noted that scaling-up the delivery of solutions will ensure that as many as possible of the estimated 10,000 families that are living in less-than-acceptable conditions can be provided with decent shelter.

“We have gotten some support from the National Housing Trust (NHT)…so we are targeting to have about $2 billion of resources eventually, that will be focused on treating with these housing situations,” he said.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the official handover of a one-bedroom home in Mike Town, North Western Manchester on March 11 under the NSHP.

The unit, built at cost of $2.8 million, was presented to 82-year-old Mary Gentles.

Mr. Holness said that initiatives such as the NSHP allow for the neediest in the society to access property and start the process of breaking the cycle of inter-generational poverty.

“The objective is to give the assurance to every Jamaican that even though you didn’t have the endowment passed to you by your family, that the country in which you live recognises that you should have a certain standard of shelter and housing,” he said.

“If we can achieve that in the next five to six years, we would have raised the standard of living of the average Jamaican in a significant way and that is what we are committed to do,” the Prime Minister noted.

Member of Parliament for North Western Manchester, Mikael Phillips, who attended the function, said that Ms. Gentles is deserving of her new home.

He suggested that persons engaged in the construction of housing units under the NSHP should receive certification from the HEART NSTA/Trust while they are on the job.

Ms. Gentles expressed gratitude for her new home. “I feel so good this evening. I am so glad, I am so happy for that new home, I needed it,” she shared.

The NSHP, which is a component of the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme was developed to improve the housing condition of the country’s poor and disadvantaged population by providing quality, affordable and sustainable housing.