‘Big yard’ upgrade programme excites inner-city residents

News of the Government’s plans to embark on a programme to upgrade ‘big yards’ has been welcomed by inner-city residents who are likely to benefit from the development.

“The place need fi develop. Most of these structures are around from the 1970s, when I just moved here, and more people living in the same space,” a resident of Payne Land, St Andrew, told The STAR.

The resident said that many residents are living in squalor, and many people do not have adequate space in their dwellings to raise families.

“You see all over deh suh, people live ina di hallways on those buildings. It nuh pretty. A man nuh have nowhere to go and him family extend. Dem jus make a room. Not even bathroom a man have like how him have a room,” the resident said.

The Government says it will unveil a new social housing programme (SHP) next fiscal year. The project will see the provision of indigent housing, relocation of vulnerable communities, and the upgrading of tenements, or ‘big yards’.

“The new SHP will be administered under the housing component of the HOPE (Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment) programme, through which employment opportunities will be provided for HOPE interns,” Governor General Sir Patrick Allen said in Parliament last week.

“Right now, Petrojam a di biggest talk with how dem do wid the money. So if dem a go develop housing fi ghetto people, we glad. All dem deh money deh, if dem did turn and give a youth a chicken farm or buy a boat fi the youth dem, cause a bare fisherman bout yah, things woulda better. A man get a money, him build up him house and set himself. We only hope dem nuh tek too long to start or deal wid fi dem people first,” the resident said.

WAS SUSPENDED

The SHP is another attempt at improving the housing stock in inner-city communities. New houses were built in Monaltrie, Denham Town, Majesty Gardens, Arnett Gardens, and Trench Town under the Inner-City Housing Programme, which was implemented when the People’s National Party held power. That programme was suspended by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who said the initiative was a drain on the resources of the National Housing Trust, which was building the houses.

The delinquency rate under the Inner-City Housing Programme was measured at 50 per cent in 2015, as many persons who were granted houses under the inner-city programme are not meeting their monthly mortgage payments.

West Kingston Member of Parliament Desmond McKenzie has continuously spoken about the need to improve the housing stock in his constituency.

“The housing stock of west Kingston dates back to 1963,” McKenzie said in Parliament in 2015.

“Denham Town is one of the oldest residential communities in Kingston, but the standard of housing leaves much to be desired,” added McKenzie, who is now a member of the Cabinet..