Ministry to Instal Prefabricated Housing Units to Accommodate Displaced Persons

The Ministry of Local Government and Community Development is looking to instal prefabricated housing units in sections of the country to accommodate displaced persons, especially those who occupy school facilities following the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

Addressing a press conference at Jamaica House on November 26, Portfolio Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, said an inspection of the prefabricated solutions will be conducted today and that various strategies are being crafted to reduce the number of persons who occupy shelters to facilitate the reopening of the educational institutions.

He said the initiative will house persons who previously occupied the infirmaries in Trelawny and Westmoreland. The facilities were damaged during the passage of the category-five hurricane and resulted in the occupants relocating to schools.

“Later on, this afternoon, we will be inspecting some prefabricated solutions that we intend to, over the next two weeks, instal in Trelawny, that will house the almost 130 persons which are required to occupy the infirmary,” the Minister said.

“We have a similar situation in Westmoreland where one of the wings of the infirmary was totally destroyed and another section of the drop-in facility was also destroyed, and again we are going to be using the same solution that we will be instituting in Trelawny to relieve the situation in Westmoreland,” he continued.

The Minister said he is hopeful that the strategies implemented by the Government will reduce the number of persons occupying schools that are being used as shelters.

“We are hoping by the end of this week, based on the various initiatives that we have been putting in place, that we will see a significant reduction in the number of shelters and the number of persons occupying the shelters,” he said.

“We have already started to make those arrangements and those arrangements already have been bearing some fruits, because at least three shelters have been closed and those residents who occupy those facilities have gone back home or we have found alternative arrangements. Now, schools are expected to open, and we don’t want to delay the opening of schools,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, he noted that the Government will continue to provide support to the country’s homeless population.

“We have seen the numbers increasing, but I want to assure the country that we have made provisions in the most critical parishes – St. Elizabeth, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St. James – to house the homeless population.

We will be transferring a lot of the homeless to some of the new facilities that we are going to be putting down, and that will be done on a temporary basis,” he said.

He informed that the Social Development Commission has undertaken a survey of the homeless population.

“We notice that a number of persons who are going out pretending that they are homeless are not homeless people and they go out just to get the food. We don’t have a difficulty in providing support for those levels of persons, but when they go out, they are counted in the data, and, therefore, it creates a problem for us in providing adequately,” the Minister said.

He urged persons to utilise the services of the drop-in facilities that are located islandwide.