NHT Pays Out $324 Million in Housing Grants

The National Housing Trust (NHT) has to date, paid out $324 million in housing grants to 810 applicants, under the Hurricane Relief Grant initiative.

Managing Director of the NHT, Martin Miller, made the disclosure during the sitting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament on January 14.

He informed that the NHT has received 2,573 applications up to January 13 with 995 processed to date.

“Just to give an idea of the distribution in terms of applications, 617 are from St. James, 225 are from Manchester, and 303 from Westmoreland. In St. Elizabeth, we received 794 applications and we have processed 360 and settled in terms of payment, 251,” Mr. Miller said.

He told the PAAC that in the early stages, the agency experienced some challenges in Westmoreland, in terms of getting to the affected persons.

He also noted the need to verify ownership or lawful occupation of damaged properties, recognising that in some communities, formal land titles are uncommon.

“The timeframe that we established is one where, having received all the documentation… we asked for pictures, evidence of ownership, or some rights to the property,” Mr. Miller said.

“If you are from rural Jamaica, you’ll recognise that houses pass down from one generation to another generation, so you may not be in possession of a title. So, we had to come up with other mechanisms, such as the use of a Justice of the Peace (JP), a recognised principal, or something to that effect,” he explained.

He further highlighted the need to ensure that the applications received are genuine.

He cited the case of one development “where some of the claims that we received when we went out there, the persons who were claiming, they did not live there. So, we have to do our verification”.

“But all things being equal, the process is one where we are hoping that having received all the documentation, in three days, we would be able to go out to the site, do our verification and whatever validation in less than a week, and then to submit to head office for payments,” Mr. Miller said.