Gov’t to Rehouse Family of 13 in Kingston after Devastating Fire

A family of 13, displaced after a fire destroyed their 12-bedroom home on East Avenue in Kingston Central in July 2021, is set to receive a new multi-family residence –East Palms Housing Development – within six months.

This is being provided under the Government’s New Social Housing Programme (NSHP) at a cost of $58.86 million.

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, headed the officials participating in contract signing and ground-breaking ceremony at the East Avenue project site on Wednesday (June 4).

The Palmers lost their homes and belongings in a fire suspected to be an act of arson, allegedly linked to gang-related violence.

Since the fire, the family, including five school-aged children and senior citizens, has relocated to different areas, either staying with relatives or renting accommodations.

The new development will feature seven apartment-style units, including four studios, one two-bedroom, and two three-bedroom residences. It will also incorporate essential external works such as walkways, sewerage connections, plumbing, and electrical installations.

Dr. Holness described the occasion of the contract signing and ground-breaking as a “transformational day”.

He emphasised the severe impact the fire had on the family and how the development’s construction on East Avenue will transform their lives.

“We are going to transform a yard that was destroyed by arson. We are going to transform lives that were destroyed in that fire, being deprived of somewhere to live, deprived of their furniture and their equipment and their clothing,” Dr. Holness declared.

“We’re going to transform the lives of children who were affected by this fire, where they had no place to study. We’re going to be transforming a community that, by virtue of this act of violence and the destruction of the residence, the community would have been depressed – the value of the community would have been depressed. We’re going to transform that,” he added.

Dr. Holness further indicated that Wednesday’s proceedings, “[were] also transformational in the sense that the New Social Housing Programme will be fulfilling one of its modalities that we don’t really use too often, and that is the construction and the redevelopment of what we ordinarily call in Jamaica ‘ big yard’ or tenement yard”.

He said the Government plans to construct another housing solution under this modality in Kingston Central, which will comprise 21 units.

Citing past instances where housing projects faced setbacks due to theft and security concerns, the Prime Minister urged community members to refrain from similar actions.

“That is why I’m so happy that, in this community, we can report that those persons who would be involved in that kind of activity, that many of them are no longer around. Right now, we are pointing the community in a direction of peace; and I can tell you, everybody prospers when there is peace,” Dr. Holness stated.

Beneficiary of the East Palms Housing Development, Doreen Plamer, who represented her family at Wednesday’s event, expressed gratitude for being one step closer to reuniting them under one roof.

“Soon and very soon the Palmer family will be together again, as it ought to be. Every Sunday evening, I… remember my grandchildren would say, ‘Grandma, me want smoothie’. Even my 29-year-old grandson, when he calls, would say, ‘Grandma, me miss coming to your house for smoothie; from you move gone live at St. Catherine, me can’t get no more smoothie [or] the food that you cook’,” the matriarch, who now resides in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, said.

The development, to be constructed by S&G Road Surfacing Materials Limited, is scheduled for completion by December 2025.