More Units To Be Provided Under Social Housing Programme

The Government remains resolute to increase the number of units available to Jamaicans through the New Social Housing Programme.

Speaking at the official handover ceremony for a three-bedroom unit in Donmair Close in St. Andrew North Central on February 16, Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, said the programme will be expanded to provide more houses to Jamaicans in need as well as transform their lives.

“Once I am satisfied that we have everything in place from the administration, from the monitoring and accounting to the architecture and engineering and the financing, then we will start to scale up. Right now, we intend to complete in total 122 such housing solutions… but in the next Budget, we are going to seek to double that, and as we expand we will be able to reach far more Jamaicans,” he said.

The Prime Minister informed that his appeal to members of the private sector to partner with and support the Government through the initiative is bearing fruit.

“Already we have seen a few companies reach out to say we would like to help because this is at the core of it; this is about giving hope to people in despair,” Mr. Holness noted.

“It is about saying to people who live in communities like these that you are not forgotten, that you too deserve proper housing, and that the Government is allocating out of its Budget, resources to deal with the worst of the worst situations,” he said.

He reminded the recipient of the new housing solution that occupants must be model citizens in the community and Ambassadors for the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme.

“We don’t want people in this house who are going to be associated with guns and gangs and killings, so you, in this regard, must be an ambassador, including for the young ones who may be so distracted and diverted into crime and other kinds of activities that are not beneficial to us as a people,” he said.

Minister of Labour and Social Security and Member of Parliament for the area, Hon. Karl Samuda, said work will continue to ensure more persons can benefit from the initiative.

Expressing gratitude on behalf of his family, Milton Dwyer, son of recipient, Henry Dwyer, thanked the Government for their assistance.

“The journey was a little tricky and rough, but we just hold faith,” he said, adding that he was thankful for the new-and-improved living accommodations.

The unit was built at cost of $6.1 million in approximately two months.

The Social Housing Programme was established in 2018 by the Prime Minister as the housing component of the HOPE programme. It was developed to improve the housing condition of the country’s poor and disadvantaged population by providing quality, affordable and sustainable housing.