PM Announces $280 Million to Assist the Needy

Government, through the National Housing Trust (NHT), has allocated $280 million this financial year to assist special groups, including the indigent and street persons.

Prime Minister the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, made the announcement as she addressed the 2014/2015 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, April 29.

She said the Trust will be using a portion of its surplus, normally used for grants and subsidies, to provide assistance in four main areas. These include: the improvement of  infirmaries; assisting with the provision of shelter for street persons; assisting with the maintenance of indigent housing, and providing help to the families of government security workers,  who  lost their lives or suffered major injuries in the line of duty.

“The National Housing Trust is working for the people, all the people,” Mrs. Simpson Miller said.

Looking ahead, Mrs. Simpson Miller said the First Step Programme, under which workers in the sugar and tourism sectors benefitted last year, will continue, as will the Inner City Housing Project.

She announced that the NHT will commence preliminary works for Majesty Gardens Phase II, Frog City, and Maxfield Avenue.

The agency had already broken ground for Majesty Gardens Phase II in March, for which 32 housing solutions will be provided at a cost of $175.2 million.

The Prime Minister also informed the House of the NHT Mobile Service launched recently in Mile Gully, Manchester, and which is now on the road.

She further noted that the NHT has a developed a Diaspora Strategy. “We are creating opportunities to give Jamaicans everywhere in the world, a chance to become NHT contributors, and to receive NHT benefits,” Mrs. Simpson Miller said.