Editorial | Urban renewal crucial

T he Gleaner welcomes Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ promised “next chapter” in Jamaica’s housing strategy: urban renewal.

Except that it should have always been a central element in the Government’s programmes for dealing with the island’s shelter and social crisis. Instead the administration’s primary focus has been on suburban greenfield developments, including plans for a new city on agricultural real estate which the National Environment and Planning Agency described as the island’s “most fertile … A1 soil”, rather than on marginal lands.

To be clear, it is not that the Government has done nothing with respect to the decay in the island’s urban communities. The National Housing Trust (NHT) has, for instance, begun construction of a handful of multi-storey homes in west Kingston and elsewhere in the capital, and has talked about projects proposed for other decayed urban areas across the island.

However, as this newspaper has often complained, the Government’s urban plan has lacked the concentration or breadth to be truly transformative, given the scale of the problem. And when urban projects are done, such as with the boom in Kingston high rises in recent years, they are at prices far out of the reach of most ordinary folk.

INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

While an estimated 54 per cent of Jamaicans live in urban centres and approximately a third of the population are in informal/squatter settlements, there is no immediately available data of the proportion that inhabit sub-standard homes in gritty urban communities.

However, those statistics are not strictly necessary for even a mildly interested observer – whether in the capital or other parishes – to discern the state of the decay. It is obvious, especially in Kingston/St Andrew, in the often dilapidated and overcrowded tenements where multi-families may share a single toilet. Or they may have none at all.

It is not only the immediate quality of people’s lives that these conditions impact. They contribute to the social dysfunction, including high levels of crime, that is generally common in the island’s inner-city communities.

In his speech at a groundbreaking ceremony for a development in Westmoreland, in the island’s west, last week, Dr Holness said that the Government has met its five-year goal of delivering 70,000 homes, and has set a target of 60,000 housing solutions over the next five years as his administration attempts to deal with the estimated backlog of 150,000 homes.

Two thirds of the new homes planned during the five-year period, according to the prime minister, will be delivered by the NHT, an agency financed by payroll, that provides mortgages, as well as undertakes developments, mostly in partnership with private developers.

NEW DIRECTION

But Dr Holness also signalled a new direction, one which this newspaper had hoped the administration would aggressively pursue when, in the aftermath of the 2020 election, urban renewal was tacked onto the name of the new housing ministry. That ministry soon fizzled and housing reverted to the Ministry of Job Creation and Economic Growth, for which Dr Holness is officially the minister.

Said the prime minister in his Westmoreland speech: “Housing policy has to shift eventually, as we meet this deficit of 150,000 new homes. It has to shift to focus on rebuilding our inner-city and long-established residential communities that are now in decay.

“...There are neighbourhoods in Kingston where they were built 60 to 70 years ago, and they are in decline. The next chapter in Jamaica’s housing journey is the resuscitation, rehabilitation and renewal of existing housing developments and residential areas.”

The Gleaner looks forward to full particulars on the prime minister’s proposals. Indeed, urban renewal should be a subject of thoughtful debate between the Government and the political Opposition in the campaign for the general election that must take place before year-end.

As Dr Holness said, despite their state of disrepair, most urban communities already possess basic infrastructure – roads, water, electricity. Some residents also hold titles to properties.

This should make the planning process relatively easy. But working with existing residents on urban renewal projects is likely to be far more difficult than greenfield developments, which is suspected to be among the reasons why inner-city resuscitation hasn’t, as yet, been an aggressive part of the Government’s agenda.

The urban redevelopment scheme has to be well thought out, and sensitive to the interests of existing residents, who can’t be merely replaced or priced out of communities in a process of ‘gentrification’.

In that regard, the renewal process has to recognise the value of existing assets and other forms of equity that some community members can contribute to the renewal project. Further, government resources, including NHT funds, can be leveraged against private sector capital and financing from international partners to ensure that Jamaica can undertake a multi-year urban renewal programme at a scale to be really transformative.

This won’t be an easy exercise. It will require deep engagement by the Government and its agencies with multiple, and sometimes difficult, stakeholders. But it is part of the capital that has to be spent, lest the urban blight becomes worse and social dysfunction deepens.