Holness says it will take time for gov't to help over 6,000 J'cans living in substandard housing

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who has portfolio responsibility for housing, says it will take some time to provide the more than 6,000 people now living in substandard conditions with a social housing unit.

Holness says the Government has already surpassed its fiscal target of building and handing over 200 social housing units for 2023/2024.

According to Holness, even with that target met, there are many other Jamaicans living in conditions that would qualify them for social housing to lift their morale.

“The programme is doing well, and we have passed the 200 mark, but we have a far way to go,” Holness said at the handing over on Wednesday of a $2.8 million one-bedroom house in Middle Quarters, St Elizabeth, to 50-year-old Berthlyn Black.

“We estimate that there are about 6,000 Jamaicans who are in need of some social housing intervention, so it's going to take some time,” the prime minister said. 

The house was constructed under the New Social Housing Programme in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

Black, who said he had been living in substandard conditions for more than two decades, thanked the Government for coming to his rescue.

“This is a blessing for me because growing up it has been a rough life, because I never grow up with my parents, so I struggled to make ends meet,” Black told The Gleaner.

-Albert Ferguson 

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