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Building without a plan
published: Sunday | July 8, 2007
File
Donovan Stanberry, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, shows a map at the launch of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Squatters Management Unit at the ministry on June 6, 2006. At centre is Roger Clarke, Minister of Agriculture and Junior Minister Victor Cummings.
Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
In another three years, over 17,000 new home owners should be receiving the keys to their new abodes - the nation's key housing agency, the National Housing Trust (NHT) having promised to deliver 11,175 new housing solutions at a cost of $17 billion, while another6,184 solutions will be pursued at a further cost of $3.8 billion.
In total, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her government say they hope to build 17,359 housing units, some of which will be for low-income and middle-income salary earners.
A significant portion of the houses will be placed in the parishes of Clarendon, St. Catherine, Trelawny, St. Ann, Hanover and Westmoreland, where housing is in great demand due to rapid population growth in these parishes. The housing plans have been welcomed as a good move, especially at a time when internal migration levels seem to be growing rapidly.
But while it would be a good attempt to address the chaotic squatter settlements that rim the island's tourist resorts and burgeoning urban centres, the Government has missed, yet again, the point that has been made over and over again.
Not enough houses for tourism workers
First, the houses for the tourism workers will not be enough to welcome the 65,000 workers (15,000 direct jobs and 50,000 indirect) following the 11,000-room stock that is expected to come on stream by 2010. All the Government hopes to create are a mere 4,357 units through the NHT in the parishes of St. James, Trelawny, Hanover, St. James and St. Ann, when what in fact what is needed is as many as 38,628 housing units. Studies that the Government itself has commissioned have so advised time and time again, yet its response to the tourism boom continues to be slow and reactive.
Second, the Government seems again to have failed to realise the importance of dealing with the underbelly of the real issue: squatter settlements. While it is busy building more houses, the Government should also be busy finding ways of regularising and bringing under control existing informal communi-ties. The living conditions of the people in these communities are below acceptable standards, lacking the basic amenities and social structures needed to encourage and sustain humanity and forcing people to find ways of establishing their own by any means necessary.
The case of Mona Commons, in eastern St. Andrew, is a good example. Ignored by authorities for years, the community has now spiralled out of control. Mona Commons has now become a refuge for gunmen and thieves who wreak havoc on the residents, persons using the University Hospital of the West Indies and persons living in surrounding communities. Stories of shoot-outs and robberies at the gate of the hospital are common and policing the community is a problem because of narrow tracks used a roads, and which are not meant to accommodate vehicular traffic.
Negotiations being finalised
In his 2004/2005 Budget presentation, former Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson announced that the NHT was finalising negotiations under the Relocation 2000 project for lands to relocate squatters of Mona Commons. It is now 2007 and the people of Mona Commons are still occupying the same board-zinc structures they did in 2004.
The same is true of the Clarendon community called Rocky Point. A visit there recently, found people living in some of the most unbelievable conditions. Not only is the environment filthy, but some residents are forced to live with some unwelcome neighbours attracted by the filth and grime - crocodiles - putting their livestock and children at risk. Crime is also a growing problem because of the community's inaccessibility by the law. The poor fisherfolk are the ones suffering most, as armed robbers take their goods and hard-earned money.
In St. Ann, squatter communities are growing even more as the Member of Parliament for North-East St. Ann, Shahine Robinson, pointed out at a Gleaner Editors' forum some months ago. There have been reports of growing problems near the Bahía Príncipe hotel complex, too. There have been reports of an increase in major crimes and added pressure on water resources and infrastructure there.
It is a shame that the people living in this squalor are the same people on whom politicians on both sides of Parliament rely most to win seats. They house anywhere between 15 and 20 per cent of the entire population and electorate, yet their conditions are only given the slightest regard - some chicken and goat meat and the occasional $500 or $1,000 note when general election nears.
To address the issue of housing entirely, the Government must also address the issue of squatting with the same immediacy being given to the new housing projects, so that even squatters can have structures and communities to meet their needs.
What is being asked of the Government is not that different from making a pie: A crust needs to be made before the filling can be added. So, the stage has to be ready for investment, before it is pursued. All the necessary structures, particularly the basic needs of the people for whom the jobs are being created, have to be put in place, not during or after, but before, otherwise the country will push itself into another crisis very similar to the events that led to the rise of informal settlements in and around the tourist capital, Montego Bay.
Recently, the Government handed over 110 land titles to squatters in St. Catherine. That is a good start, indicative again that it wants to move in the right direction - that of turning around informal communities into structures that people can feel proud of. But it takes more than a piece of paper to humanise people's conditions. They need - what is so basic to many of us - water, electricity and good bathroom facilities. Close to 25 per cent of the population are still without potable water and where there is, water is usually collected from an outside tap, not piped inside the home. Close to half are still using pit latrines, according to the Planning Institute Of Jamaica's last full report of living conditions in the island. This is scandalous!
cont
published: Sunday | July 8, 2007
File
Donovan Stanberry, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, shows a map at the launch of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Squatters Management Unit at the ministry on June 6, 2006. At centre is Roger Clarke, Minister of Agriculture and Junior Minister Victor Cummings.
Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
In another three years, over 17,000 new home owners should be receiving the keys to their new abodes - the nation's key housing agency, the National Housing Trust (NHT) having promised to deliver 11,175 new housing solutions at a cost of $17 billion, while another6,184 solutions will be pursued at a further cost of $3.8 billion.
In total, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her government say they hope to build 17,359 housing units, some of which will be for low-income and middle-income salary earners.
A significant portion of the houses will be placed in the parishes of Clarendon, St. Catherine, Trelawny, St. Ann, Hanover and Westmoreland, where housing is in great demand due to rapid population growth in these parishes. The housing plans have been welcomed as a good move, especially at a time when internal migration levels seem to be growing rapidly.
But while it would be a good attempt to address the chaotic squatter settlements that rim the island's tourist resorts and burgeoning urban centres, the Government has missed, yet again, the point that has been made over and over again.
Not enough houses for tourism workers
First, the houses for the tourism workers will not be enough to welcome the 65,000 workers (15,000 direct jobs and 50,000 indirect) following the 11,000-room stock that is expected to come on stream by 2010. All the Government hopes to create are a mere 4,357 units through the NHT in the parishes of St. James, Trelawny, Hanover, St. James and St. Ann, when what in fact what is needed is as many as 38,628 housing units. Studies that the Government itself has commissioned have so advised time and time again, yet its response to the tourism boom continues to be slow and reactive.
Second, the Government seems again to have failed to realise the importance of dealing with the underbelly of the real issue: squatter settlements. While it is busy building more houses, the Government should also be busy finding ways of regularising and bringing under control existing informal communi-ties. The living conditions of the people in these communities are below acceptable standards, lacking the basic amenities and social structures needed to encourage and sustain humanity and forcing people to find ways of establishing their own by any means necessary.
The case of Mona Commons, in eastern St. Andrew, is a good example. Ignored by authorities for years, the community has now spiralled out of control. Mona Commons has now become a refuge for gunmen and thieves who wreak havoc on the residents, persons using the University Hospital of the West Indies and persons living in surrounding communities. Stories of shoot-outs and robberies at the gate of the hospital are common and policing the community is a problem because of narrow tracks used a roads, and which are not meant to accommodate vehicular traffic.
Negotiations being finalised
In his 2004/2005 Budget presentation, former Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson announced that the NHT was finalising negotiations under the Relocation 2000 project for lands to relocate squatters of Mona Commons. It is now 2007 and the people of Mona Commons are still occupying the same board-zinc structures they did in 2004.
The same is true of the Clarendon community called Rocky Point. A visit there recently, found people living in some of the most unbelievable conditions. Not only is the environment filthy, but some residents are forced to live with some unwelcome neighbours attracted by the filth and grime - crocodiles - putting their livestock and children at risk. Crime is also a growing problem because of the community's inaccessibility by the law. The poor fisherfolk are the ones suffering most, as armed robbers take their goods and hard-earned money.
In St. Ann, squatter communities are growing even more as the Member of Parliament for North-East St. Ann, Shahine Robinson, pointed out at a Gleaner Editors' forum some months ago. There have been reports of growing problems near the Bahía Príncipe hotel complex, too. There have been reports of an increase in major crimes and added pressure on water resources and infrastructure there.
It is a shame that the people living in this squalor are the same people on whom politicians on both sides of Parliament rely most to win seats. They house anywhere between 15 and 20 per cent of the entire population and electorate, yet their conditions are only given the slightest regard - some chicken and goat meat and the occasional $500 or $1,000 note when general election nears.
To address the issue of housing entirely, the Government must also address the issue of squatting with the same immediacy being given to the new housing projects, so that even squatters can have structures and communities to meet their needs.
What is being asked of the Government is not that different from making a pie: A crust needs to be made before the filling can be added. So, the stage has to be ready for investment, before it is pursued. All the necessary structures, particularly the basic needs of the people for whom the jobs are being created, have to be put in place, not during or after, but before, otherwise the country will push itself into another crisis very similar to the events that led to the rise of informal settlements in and around the tourist capital, Montego Bay.
Recently, the Government handed over 110 land titles to squatters in St. Catherine. That is a good start, indicative again that it wants to move in the right direction - that of turning around informal communities into structures that people can feel proud of. But it takes more than a piece of paper to humanise people's conditions. They need - what is so basic to many of us - water, electricity and good bathroom facilities. Close to 25 per cent of the population are still without potable water and where there is, water is usually collected from an outside tap, not piped inside the home. Close to half are still using pit latrines, according to the Planning Institute Of Jamaica's last full report of living conditions in the island. This is scandalous!
cont
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