Better housing for downtown families

• PM promises that residents will not be left behind in redevelopment plan
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RESIDENTS OF communities in downtown Kingston have been promised that they will not be left behind as the Government pushes its ambitious project to redevelop the city.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding - whose west Kingston constituency includes a swathe of downtown Kingston - told The Gleaner recently that the redevelopment of residential communities will be done in line with the rebirth of the commercial areas.

"The residents will benefit from this (the redevelopment of downtown), as they are a part of this," Golding said.

"We are working through the community-development councils to make sure that the residents are fully on-board, because they have development needs that are more immediate to them," added Golding.

He was speaking minutes before breaking ground for the pilot programme of the Urban Development Corporation's downtown-Kingston housing project.

Under the project, homeowners will be sold a starter unit, which can be expanded into a two-bedroom town house.

The first houses are expected to be ready in five months, and students of the downtown Kingston-based Tivoli Gardens and Kingston Technical High schools will be given on-the-job training while the work is taking place.

According to Golding, this is part of the Government's efforts to find solutions to the inner-city housing problem.

"The inner-city housing programme that was launched by the last Government, commendable though it was, was just not sustainable, because it required such huge subsidies; which had to be coming from the contributions of National Housing Trust contributors who themselves were waiting in line for a benefit," Golding said.

"So, we are starting this new programme in conjunction with the (National) Housing Trust, which has contributed a grant of $150 million," added Golding.

He noted that the pilot programme is being done in his west Kingston constituency and the neighbouring central Kingston constituency, which is represented by Opposition Member of Parliament Ronnie Thwaites.