Providing Housing Solutions Helps to Boost Productivity – PM

Providing adequate housing solutions for persons in need will not only ensure their safety and security but enables them to produce more, says Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness.

He was speaking at a ribbon-cutting to officially hand over a two-bedroom unit to Gyllian Coleman in Berkshire Hall, St. Catherine, recently.

The Prime Minister said the $4.5-million house is a social security asset for the family.

“When you look at the structure, you realise that this is a strongly built shelter and you are going to be protected from the strongest hurricanes and natural disaster. You are protected because this is well built and will last for generations,” Mr. Holness said.

“You now have an asset that you can forward to your generations to come. Your household is now secure, you can now live in far more comfort, and you can be more productive,” he noted.

Mrs. Coleman, in expressing gratitude, said that owning a home was a dream that “was always on my prayer list”.

“I thank you (PM) for choosing my family to be a recipient of a home. What was only in the mind it is now a reality,” she said.

The house was built under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), which falls under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment Programme (HOPE) of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

The initiative is geared at improving the living conditions of the country’s most needy population.

“Member of Parliament for St. Catherine North East, Kerensia Morrison, said the family is deserving of the house provided by the Government.

“When I saw the condition [in which they lived], I was moved. These persons are most deserving of a solution, as are others of my constituents,” she noted.

The NSHP consists of three modalities – provision of indigent housing; relocation of vulnerable communities, with priority given to persons in imminent danger; and the upgrading of tenement yards (one for each constituency).