EDITORIAL - The NHT and inner-city Jamaica

 We are pleased that Morin Seymour, who, a long time ago, had a stint as its executive director, has complained about what he sees as the blatant inadequacy of the National Housing Trust (NHT) in Jamaica's inner-city communities.

"With all the capital resources that they have, when you get on the highway, you see all kinds of housing space being financed (by the NHT), but when it comes to the cleaning up the ghetto, they are not doing anything," Mr Seymour said. "Absolutely nothing."

Mr Seymour, of course, was more than a bit hyperbolic. But we get the point.

Indeed, he, hopefully, has put back on the agenda an issue that has been raised by this newspaper and about which we remain concerned.

The NHT's mandate is to facilitate shelter solutions in Jamaica. It is funded by a three per cent payroll tax on employers, and loans for seven years of two per cent of their salaries, from workers.

The agency has done reasonably well over its three and a half decades of existence. It has assets of more than J$200 billion, around 70 per cent of which are loans receivable, primarily in mortgages to homeowners and advances to developers.

shelter programmes

In the current fiscal year, the Trust projected that more than $23 billion would be spent on shelter programmes, covering around 7,600 loans. This would facilitate about 2,500 housing starts and more than 3,000 completions. Configured another way, NHT financing drives about half of housing construction in Jamaica annually.

Yet Jamaica remains in a housing crisis.

It is estimated that Jamaica needs around 15,000 homes annually to meet current population demands, without addressing the existing backlog. That is perhaps another 40,000 homes.

The problem is that we have thus far been unable to produce houses at a cost that the vast majority of Jamaicans can afford. Indeed, the bulk of NHT contributors, even with the low rates on Trust loans, do not qualify for its mortgages.

The problem is exacerbated by the high development costs associated with the mostly greenfield housing projects in Jamaica, many removed from existing population centres. This happens even as our urban communities, many around the capital, become overrun with crime and operationally dysfunctional. The NHT has tried its hand at a few inner-city projects, but these are mostly new constructions which the 'buyers', ultimately, prove they can ill afford. The Trust carries heavy arrears on them.

But the social and economic value of rehabilitating inner-city Jamaica is well known, obvious, and often declared. And in many respects, it is likely to be cheaper and easier to do than greenfield developments.

Many of Kingston's old communities, for instance, already have basic economic and social infrastructure such as roads, water, and sewage and are close to health-care facilities and commercial centres. The basic housing stock is often good, if in disrepair.

In that respect, it can't be beyond the ability of the NHT, as Mr Seymour suggested, working with the private sector and other agencies, to drive community rehabilitation. And not just clean-up programmes, but comprehensive overhauls.

This would require providing loans and mortgages to people who live in these communities. We expect that there will be complaints that many of these people do not hold titles to the properties they occupy and on which they may squat. These are merely problems to overcome.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.