Government to provide 30,000 housing solutions to combat squatting

WESTERN BUREAU:

Prime Minister Andrew Holness says some 30,000 housing solutions are to be established on government-owned lands across the island as part of efforts to reduce the decades-long issue of squatting.

“We have identified several thousand acres of land, and we are going to earmark those lands for housing,” said Holness while addressing a ceremony where a new three-bedroom house, valued at J$9 million, was handed over to a family in Salt Spring, St James. The house was constructed under the National Social Housing Programme.

“We are looking for lands in proximity to urban areas where we know there is significant economic activity. Lands near the tourism areas where we know there is a pull for employment. We want to target over 30,000 housing solutions in the affordable income range,” Holness added.

“Can you imagine 30,000 housing solutions all across Jamaica? Then what reason would you have to go and squat on somebody’s land, to go and build up three and four-storey structures on land you do not own, when you could take that same money and go and properly acquire your land the legal way and get your legal title so you can claim the value of the land?” the prime minister questioned.

According to Holness, this strategy of providing legal housing would prevent what he calls the destructive nature of squatting.

“There are those who continue to encourage persons and say ‘gwaan go squat on the land, nobody nuh have it, a government land, just go on it,’ and there are those who continue to push the view that we must ignore property rights and just go and settle as you will. That is a recipe for destruction,” said Holness.

In St James, which is the hub of the local tourism sector, there are some 22 informal settlements, 19 of which are located in the St James North West constituency. Salt Spring, which is in St James Central, is one such unplanned community.

The emergence of unplanned communities in and around Montego Bay started in the 1960s when tourism started to flourish and persons from outside the parish started moving into St James in search of employment. With the city not able to meet the demand for housing, more and more people resorted to squatting, which has sparked many social ills.

Last February, Housing Agency of Jamaica Managing Director Gary Howell suggested that if unplanned communities were formally established with services like transportation, police patrols, and legal water connections, the residents would become less accepting of criminal activity in their spaces.