Housing stock in Sav ZOSO to get upgrade – Sweeney
Published:Saturday | February 5, 2022 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
AFTER living in less-than-ideal conditions for decades as neglect, poverty and gang feuds held their community in a chokehod, some residents in sections of Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, are set to benefit from the Government’s social housing programme within the the zone of special operations (ZOSO).
According to Omar Sweeney, deputy chairman of the ZOSO Social Intervention Committee, some residents in the communities of Russia, Dexter Street and Dalling Street could benefit from improvements to their houses as part of the Government’s efforts to improve their living conditions.
“I think the big part of Russia, when you look at the needs assessment, is the housing stock,” Sweeney said of the dirty, dilapidated dwellings.
“That ‘s going to be an area of the target and focus for us, working with the new portfolio minister on housing, to see how we can improve the housing stock for persons living in that community,” he told The Gleaner.
Southern Savanna-la-Mar, a section of the commercial business district, last month became the latest space to be declared a ZOSO since 2017 under the Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) Special Security and Community Development Measures Act. The measure is aimed at containing crime while safeguarding the human rights of residents and promoting community development through social intervention initiatives.
According to Sweeney, while no concrete decisions have been made on the proposed rehabilitation and construction of new houses under the programme as yet, this initiative, when approved, will take place during the build phase of the three-pronged clear-hold-build initiative.
Further, he said that the ZOSO Social Intervention Committee, which had its first meeting last week, will be pulling on all the social arms of the State in order to arrive at the appropriate strategies to meet the needs of the residents in these communities.
In the interim, Sweeney, who is also managing director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, said his team will be going into the space to provide support to mitigate against the impact of decades of gang feuds, the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of the ZOSO.
This, he noted, will be done under the watchful eyes of the security forces operating on the ground, as they work to clear and hold the space before the full roll-out of the social intervention strategies.
“They will benefit from the normal immediate types of interventions, to include the micro-business enterprise programme,” Sweeney said.