Houses Under Inner City Programe to be Delivered by March

The construction of houses under the Inner City Renewal Programme is far advanced, with the first set of homes to be delivered during the first quarter of the year, said Water and Housing Minister, Donald Buchanan.
“In Denham Town, 94 units are in an advanced state of completion. In fact, completion is expected by March 2005, he stated.
Mr. Buchanan, who made the announcement at a title handing over ceremony in Tivoli Gardens on January 12, also informed that construction was scheduled to commence in the Board Villa community of Denham Town in April.
He said that the government was in the process of acquiring 48 properties in the Denham Town and Railway Land to facilitate the project.
Ground was broken for the $5 billion development programme last April, which according to Minister Buchanan, was designed to “transform inner city areas into attractive and sustainable neighbourhoods, through a combination of new housing and the refurbishing of existing housing stock” and the provision of related social infrastructure. The National Housing Trust (NHT) is the implementing agency for the project.
It is expected that at the end of the programme, approximately 3,000 householders, deemed to be living under substandard housing conditions, would benefit from new housing.
Turning to other projects in Western Kingston, Minister Buchanan informed that the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) had worked with Member of Parliament for the area, Edward Seaga, “to complete refurbishing work totalling $29.7 million on a number of projects in record time and most critically without a single flaw.” Some of these projects included the upgrading of irrigation systems at the Denham Town Railway Oval and football field, marling and paving works in Denham Town and fencing and repair works at the Tivoli Gardens Sports complex.
He noted further that the NHDC, through Operation PRIDE, was undertaking over 113 housing projects island wide with 38 completed. These, he said, involved the provision of affordable planned housing solutions to 30,010 first time owners and “we will be completing another 10,000 solutions this year,” he outlined.