Gov’t consistently responding to citizens’ housing needs – Minister McKenzie

Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie says the administration has been consistent in its response to the housing needs of Jamaicans.

Speaking in Manchester on Friday, December 1, where houses were handed over to indigent beneficiaries in Kendal and Coley Mountain, McKenzie said the Government takes its responsibility of fulfilling the housing needs of all citizens seriously.

“It is worth repeating that since 2016, this administration has built more houses than any other for [persons at] every level of [the] society,” he noted.

The minister cited the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment Programme, the Indigent Housing Programme, the National Housing Trust, and the Housing Agency of Jamaica Limited, as well as partnerships forged with private-sector stakeholders among the entities and arrangements contributing to the housing stock.

Meanwhile, McKenzie urged one of the recipients of Friday’s presentations, Kendal resident Nadine Lawrence, to take care of the new house and adhere to the conditions under which she received it.

An elated Lawrence, whose board house was destroyed by fire in 2020, said she was grateful for her new two-bedroom home.

“I could not do it. My children could not do it; we are poor. Other people in the community were there with me during my time of loss of my board dwelling. [The] Government has provided me with a concrete house now and I thank you so much. I am thankful that I have a key and can sleep [peacefully],” she stated.

Earlier in the day, McKenzie handed over a studio unit to another indigent beneficiary in Coley Mountain.

The units, which were facilitated under the local government ministry’s Indigent Housing Programme, and are in keeping with the Government’s thrust to provide homes for more Jamaicans.

JIS