HAJ pushes to deliver 500 new land titles before close of fiscal year

The Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) says it is aiming to deliver up to 500 new land titles for holdings in former Operation Pride schemes before the close of the 2018/19 fiscal year in a few days.

“We haven’t closed (2018/19) yet and we are actually under a huge push…our aim for the outgoing fiscal year is to provide up to 500 land titles where possible,” said senior manager for Community Development at the HAJ, Nakia McMorris.

The fiscal year closes on March 31.

She noted that the cost to produce the titles is approximately $55.4 million.

McMorris, who was speaking at a recent JIS Think Tank, said the emphasis is on housing areas that were part of the now defunct Operation PRIDE.

“We focus on informal settlements and the regularisation of these communities…the HAJ has been tasked to take this on in a more aggressive way,” she noted.

 “The agency has over 80 communities that we work with so, during this year, what we’ve done is take out a certain set of communities to focus on, most of them being in Westmoreland and St James,” she added.

The HAJ manager said the agency has been urging residents to partner with it to get formal documentation for the property that they occupy.

“Providing housing solutions, whether through lots or helping persons to get their land titles, aids in building housing stability,” she pointed out.

Meanwhile, McMorris told JIS News that earnings from the land titling programme were above the expected $26.4 million for 2018/2019.

She said that the agency would continue to work with persons to settle outstanding  payments so that they could receive their titles.

“In some situations, we know that persons have migrated so they are not on the property anymore and there are even situations where persons have paid and don’t come back to us. What we’ll do, however, is to continue to engage persons whom we know are ready to pay as they are lower hanging fruits,” McMorris said.

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