Private Company to Contribute Housing Units to NSHP

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Tuesday (August 23) between the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and Arc Properties Limited, for the contribution of units to the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP).

This follows an appeal to the private sector to partner with the Government in building more houses for vulnerable Jamaicans.

Signatories to the document included Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness; Permanent Secretary in both the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Audrey Sewell; Managing Director, Kinetic Engineering Services, Keon Hinds; Managing Director, Arc Properties Limited, Ashley-Ann Horne, and Director of Arc Properties and Deputy Chair of Arc Manufacturing, Charlotte Horne Hayles.

In his remarks at the signing ceremony, held at Jamaica House, Prime Minister Holness said he was pleased to see Arc Properties Limited coming on board the Programme.

“I am almost overcome with emotion to see the call being answered. You are the pioneer in this area, and I am very pleased; and it does speak well for Jamacia. The truth is our private sector has been very active in treating with social issues… and I am sure there are others who will hear the call and respond,” he added.

Mr. Holness noted that the NSHP targets beneficiaries or households earning minimum wage or less, or which earn no income.

“This is what you would consider to be an income contingent subsidy. Governments give subsidies for all kinds of reasons. But the best way to give a subsidy is to make it income contingent, meaning if you are not earning any income, then you genuinely should get the subsidy,” he said.

“Because if you think about what a subsidy is, it is a transfer, a grant from the Government to enable you to afford consumption. People with income have consumption ability, people without income generally don’t. So, for government to be efficient in subsidies, you usually want to tie your subsidy to the income of the beneficiary. That is what the Government is doing generally with all its subsidies across the board; we are making them specific and targetted to beneficiaries who we have identified, and we are making sure that people who have more income don’t get more subsidy,” he added.

Mr. Holness informed that, already, some 89 units have been built under the programme.

He noted that initially, some of the units would cost between $8 million and $9 million, “but now the prices are coming down nicely.”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is calling for more partners to come on board the programme.

“Once the private sector realises that the project is integrous, meaning that the reputational risk of association is very limited or non-existent, then it’s easy for the private sector to say, ‘I would associate my brand with this project’. It is transparent, it is well-run, and you can only get a positive gain from it,” Mr. Holness said.

For her part, Mrs. Horne said her company will do what it can to increase the construction of houses for the most vulnerable in the society under the NSHP, at no cost to the Government.

“We are patriotically proud to be contributing to the upliftment of the Jamaican people in this manner, and we will continue to be a good Jamaican company and a sterling partner for all social, economic and national upliftment programmes,” she said.

The New Social Housing Programme was established in 2018 by the Prime Minister as the housing component of the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (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.