Tweet
Housing minister stuns with disclosure that J'ca has one million squatters
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Observer staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, April 16, 2009
WATER and Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang stunned parliament yesterday with a startling disclosure that nearly one million Jamaicans, or just over a third of the population, are squatters.
Hardened politicians in the parliament were obviously shocked by the news from Chang who quickly added: "There are some 700 squatter settlements islandwide, meaning just about a third of the Jamaican population is squatting; they vary from the very small to some large ones."
Chang was making the case for his ministry before the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament on its second day of combing through the bulky 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure at Gordon House in Kingston.
His disclosure came after questions were raised about the meagre $5.9 million allocated in the budget this year for his ministry's Squatter Management Unit.
Opposition MPs reacted with obvious shock, saying that the statistics represented a serious social problem.
"You frighten me when you tell me a third of the country which is 900,000 are squatters... I can't think of a more serious social problem than this," People's National Party (PNP) chairman and MP for North West St Catherine, Robert Pickersgill, remarked.
"The statistics you just gave is startling," colleague parliamentarian, Dr Omar Davies said, adding that the major focus of the ministry should probably be more on informal settlements.
Data was not immediately available, but politicians have for several years been blamed for either encouraging or not discouraging the increase in squatting in several constituencies, which amounts to more votes for them.
The island's population, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, stood at 2,682,100 at the end of 2007 with an annual percentage growth of 0.47.
Dr Chang said Montego Bay, Jamaica's western city, had "roughly 30,000" squatter homes, with Clarendon "coming along very rapidly, in addition to sections of St Ann".
He said getting a handle on the situation had proved challenging since the Squatter Management Unit in the ministry, which is intended to address the problem of informal settlements, was at this point more of a policy unit and unable to do the necessary fieldwork with its staff of only four.
He said, however, that temporary rangers had been employed to prevent the expansion of squatting.
"We are looking at how we can adjust the policy and regulations. We are at a stage involving some kind of sustainable programme to address squatter settlements and it's going to be multifaceted - upgrading those that cannot be relocated, arresting the expansion in some places and relocation in others," he said.
"We have seen the problem and we are working at it, it's just that this year we don't have the capital to address it as we would like," Chang added.
He said that a new housing policy, which should be ready by September, would also address the issue of squatting.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._AND_AWE__.asp
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Observer staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, April 16, 2009
WATER and Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang stunned parliament yesterday with a startling disclosure that nearly one million Jamaicans, or just over a third of the population, are squatters.
Hardened politicians in the parliament were obviously shocked by the news from Chang who quickly added: "There are some 700 squatter settlements islandwide, meaning just about a third of the Jamaican population is squatting; they vary from the very small to some large ones."
Chang was making the case for his ministry before the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament on its second day of combing through the bulky 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure at Gordon House in Kingston.
His disclosure came after questions were raised about the meagre $5.9 million allocated in the budget this year for his ministry's Squatter Management Unit.
Opposition MPs reacted with obvious shock, saying that the statistics represented a serious social problem.
"You frighten me when you tell me a third of the country which is 900,000 are squatters... I can't think of a more serious social problem than this," People's National Party (PNP) chairman and MP for North West St Catherine, Robert Pickersgill, remarked.
"The statistics you just gave is startling," colleague parliamentarian, Dr Omar Davies said, adding that the major focus of the ministry should probably be more on informal settlements.
Data was not immediately available, but politicians have for several years been blamed for either encouraging or not discouraging the increase in squatting in several constituencies, which amounts to more votes for them.
The island's population, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, stood at 2,682,100 at the end of 2007 with an annual percentage growth of 0.47.
Dr Chang said Montego Bay, Jamaica's western city, had "roughly 30,000" squatter homes, with Clarendon "coming along very rapidly, in addition to sections of St Ann".
He said getting a handle on the situation had proved challenging since the Squatter Management Unit in the ministry, which is intended to address the problem of informal settlements, was at this point more of a policy unit and unable to do the necessary fieldwork with its staff of only four.
He said, however, that temporary rangers had been employed to prevent the expansion of squatting.
"We are looking at how we can adjust the policy and regulations. We are at a stage involving some kind of sustainable programme to address squatter settlements and it's going to be multifaceted - upgrading those that cannot be relocated, arresting the expansion in some places and relocation in others," he said.
"We have seen the problem and we are working at it, it's just that this year we don't have the capital to address it as we would like," Chang added.
He said that a new housing policy, which should be ready by September, would also address the issue of squatting.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._AND_AWE__.asp
Comment