'Frog City' residents to finally get houses
Published:Wednesday | October 3, 2018 | 12:00 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
After waiting for more than 10 years for construction of housing solutions geared at creating a better community, residents of a section of Maxfield Park, commonly known as Frog City, are finally witnessing the dream becoming a reality with yesterday's breaking of ground for 210 units.
The $810 million Maxfield Park Housing Project is the first of its kind under the Community Renewal Programme (CRP) administered by the National Housing Trust (NHT), with infrastructure work to begin immediately. Full-scale infrastructure work is to begin in March of 2019, with construction on the first cluster set for October of 2019.
When construction is completed, residents will no longer be labelled as "people from Frog City, but will be able to enjoy in comfort, modern infrastructural amenities," Opposition leader and Member of Parliament Dr Peter Phillips has promised.
"They used to call this community Frog City. It was a description that in and of itself shows the denigration of people that live in communities like that. But it is possible to rebrand it. It is possible to provide the tools for people to lift themselves up," he said. "Frog City is a thing of the past and shall never be again."
Along with the 210 units, the NHT further proposes that the housing solutions be developed using the Skills System model, which matches the type of housing solution according to the needs of the homeowners and their level of affordability. Beneficiaries will be provided with technical expertise and financing through the NHT.
The project was in the pipeline from as far back as in 2002, but nothing came of repeated plans to implement it, with promises of a groundbreaking also made in 2007 and 2016.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who delivered the main address, said that the CRP it is not about building houses, but making communities such as Frog City livable.
"It's about good health, it's about the environment, it is about peace of mind, and it is about a certain level of mindfulness of the people who live in the community," Holness said.
LACK OF PLANNING CREATES CHAOS AND DISORDER
The prime minister noted that for too many years, successive administrations have allowed development to overtake planning, noting that where there is the lack of planning [informal settlements], there is chaos and disorder.
"In fact, some people want the communities to remain the way they are because the structure of power and authority is in their favour, and so you will always have some level of resistance sometimes," he said.
"But I want to put all communities in Jamaica on notice - that the Government of Jamaica will not sit by and allow the country to descend into chaos. Whether it is chaos in development or chaos in public order or crime, the Government of Jamaica is taking a proactive, instrumental, and deliberate approach to intervene in the development of communities to ensure that the development is orderly, is peaceful but more importantly, it is equitable and accessible."
The new-look Maxfield Park community will feature paved roads with kerbs, storm water drains, centralised sewage-collection systems, and a main corridor to Maxfield Avenue. The development will also feature a potable water distribution system, streets lights, as well as road markings and furnishings.