Government To Use Several Models To Deliver Housing Solutions Under HOPE

The Government intends to use several models to deliver new housing solutions, under the flagship intervention, Housing Opportunity Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, gave this update during the handover of the first multi-family housing solution to three sisters residing in the town of Annotto Bay, St. Mary, on Thursday (July 3), which was constructed under the HOPE programme.

The new models are geared towards the benefit of persons who are not working, who are not National Housing Trust (NHT) contributors because they are not working, and persons who do not have an income and would not have a chance to purchase a house on the open market.

“The Government has to put in place programmes that will help them improve their conditions, and that is why it is called ‘social housing’,” Mr. Holness said.

“We are going to employ several models of delivering social housing. One model is to take over a housing development… really a tenement yard or a big yard or a yard with several houses in it, but all of them are in substandard conditions, and we are going to replace [them],” he added.

Through the HOPE programme, Mr. Holness said the Government will be focusing more on offering housing solutions, as it has already focused much on employment.

“Initially, we had a budget of $1 billion, and that would have done over 1,000 units right across Jamaica. That was the intention. We have had to cut the budget because of the COVID situation, but we are still pressing ahead,” Mr. Holness said.

He said based upon the budget, the Government could probably do 350 interventions right across Jamaica.

The multi-family housing solution handed over by the Government on Thursday was one example he referred to, which was constructed in six months at a cost of approximately $22.6 million.