Olympic Gardens Couple Get “Dream House”

It was with a sense of pride that Dave Coburn and Evadane Smith walked through the doors of their brand new “dream house” in Olympic Gardens, Kingston.

The one-bedroom concreate structure, which includes a kitchen, bathroom and charming front porch, was built at a cost of $2.8 million under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP).

It replaces the makeshift wooden structure in which the couple lived for about two decades.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, handed over the keys to the happy couple earlier this month.

“I call it the ‘dream house’ because before it was just zinc, wood and nail, and I lived in it for about 20 years,” Mr. Coburn told JIS NEWS.

The vendor and handyman said he is grateful to finally have a place that he can proudly call home.

His partner, Ms. Smith, who is also a vendor, said that they are happy about the new house.

“We are going to sleep good,” she laughed, while expressing gratitude to neighbours and others, who saw their need and directed them to the NSHP for assistance.

Prime Minister Holness, in his address, said he is aware of the housing challenges faced by many Jamaicans and is working assiduously to address the needs, particularly of indigent persons, under the NSHP.

“We estimate that there are about 10,000 households that are in the worst of the worst conditions. So, we have spent the time to properly design a programme and there is an oversight committee that examines every single application to make sure that it goes through a proper beneficiary identification and justification system,” he noted.

The Prime Minister said that the programme will also be expanded in the upcoming 2022/2023 financial year, noting that private-sector stakeholders have been invited to join with the Government in meeting the demand.

“You may know a family living in circumstances such as these; a little shack or in a little hut with two or three pieces of ply [wood] against each other. It doesn’t cost a lot to put together with the Government and provide the solution,” he urged.

“If we get help from the private sector, we could do maybe even another 50 or another 100 houses [which] would certainly help and we are going to be trying to partner with other agencies… to get the houses built,” Prime Minister Holness said.

The New Social Housing Programme was instituted in 2018 by Prime Minister Holness to improve and develop housing conditions for the country’s poor and vulnerable population.

The aim is to provide quality affordable and sustainable housing for less fortunate citizens, who cannot afford to build a house for themselves.

The programme is being executed by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation through the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme.