HAJ Plans to Deliver 866 Housing Units in 2023/24
By: , April 13, 2023
Photo: Mark Bell
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, delivers the closing 2023/24 Budget Debate presentation in the House of Representatives, on Tuesday (March 21).The Full Story
For the financial year 2023/24, the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) will continue to monitor and provide management to ongoing joint-venture projects with its partners, to facilitate the delivery of 866 housing units.
To this end, the HAJ expects to deliver 521 units and 345 units from its Catherine Estates (Bernard Lodge) and Edmond Ridge (St. James) joint-venture projects, respectively.
This is outlined in the 2023/24 Public Bodies Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, tabled in the House of Representatives by Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, on February 14.
The document notes that during prior financial years, 248 units in the Catherine Estates development and 155 units in the Edmond Ridge development were delivered to the market.
The HAJ will also collaborate with the National housing Trust (NHT), to construct 126 units in densely populated inner-city communities. Twenty-four of these units will be for residents who were affected by a fire in 2019.
The agency will also distribute the 7,732 titles it currently holds under Operation PRIDE, to regularise informal communities and explore strategies, such as discounted prices, to encourage collection of titles.
Meanwhile, the HAJ will continue facilitation of the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), administered by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, under the housing component of the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme.
Under this initiative, housing for the indigent is being provided, especially targeting the physically challenged and the otherwise vulnerable, and where the number of rooms in each unit will be based on the size of the families.
Tenement yards will also be upgraded and where necessary, the tenure of the residents will be regularised.
As of October 2022, approximately 100 units have been delivered to beneficiaries, and it is expected that additional units will be delivered in the 2023/24 financial year based on needs assessment.