Prime Minister Announces Over 40,000 NHT Housing Solutions in Pipeline to Boost Market Supply

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has announced that the National Housing Trust (NHT) currently has 40,637 housing solutions in various stages of development, a move expected to significantly increase the number of homes entering the market.

“So we have 8,353 units that the NHT currently has under construction. Under contract award, we have 7,692 units. In procurement and negotiation, we have 12,207 units. In planning and design, we have 10,598 units. And in terms of the NHT’s daily support for people who are building and constructing, we have approximately 2,000 units,” Dr. Holness informed.

The NHT has an allocated share of 43,000 houses of the 75,000 solutions targeted under the Government’s housing plan.

“We would almost fulfil the NHT’s commitment of 43,000. So that means, in this year and in the years to come, you’re going to see more houses come on the housing market,” Dr. Holness said.

Of the 75,000 housing solutions planned, the Prime Minister noted that the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Project in St. Catherine will contribute between 10,000 and 15,000 units, while the Housing Agency of Jamaica Limited (HAJ) has 8,000 to 14,000 units either under construction or in the planning phase.

Dr. Holness was speaking on June 19 during the handover of five homes under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP) in the constituencies of St. Thomas Western and Eastern.

The beneficiaries included Sayde Dawson and Sandrarie Sutherland of Dalvey, Jennifer Phillips of White Hall, Shirley Bennett of Style Hut, and Gloria Dacres of Amity Hall.

Dr. Holness said 293 houses have, so far, been handed over under the NSHP, with 43 currently under construction and nearly 60 more in planning stages.

“It is a small programme, because it’s designed to treat with the individual circumstances. This is a programme that is designed to go throughout Jamaica and find persons who are living in [less than desirable] housing conditions… living in tenement yards [and] address situations where persons’ homes are threatened by environmental conditions,” he said, in highlighting the Programme’s mandate.

The Prime Minister noted that the initiative has supported a wide cross-section of vulnerable individuals, including persons with disabilities, survivors of domestic abuse, victims of fire and arson, those who were living in vehicles, and even one individual who had been residing in a tree.

“This programme is the conscience of Jamaica… to say that nobody should live below a certain housing standard,” Dr. Holness declared.

The NSHP is implemented through the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme.