“So Many Persons on Captured Land”: Why a Christian Charity Builds Half the Houses It Could

• Food For The Poor said it could build 60 houses a month but was averaging about 30
• The main obstacle was applicants living on captured or untitled land
• The charity requires proper title documents before it builds
• It appealed to landowners to lease or donate parcels

Food For The Poor has built thousands of homes in Jamaica, but in 2021 the Christian charity said its biggest limit was not money or materials. It was land. The Jamaica Observer reported in November 2021 that many of the people who most needed houses could not show they had a right to the land they lived on.

“The thing is that there are so many persons on captured land who we can’t assist,” said Marsha Burrell Rose, FFP’s development and marketing manager. The charity requires proper title documents before it builds, and many applicants, including fire victims, lacked them or submitted incomplete paperwork.

The result was a large capacity gap. According to the Observer, FFP could build about 60 houses a month but was averaging about 30. Since January 2021 it had built more than 200 homes across Jamaica. Construction manager Lorenzo Stanton said that resolving documentation problems could let the charity reach its maximum of 60 a month.

Burrell Rose appealed to landowners to lease or donate parcels so that vulnerable families could be housed, pointing out that stable housing improves children’s chances at school.

The story shows how Jamaica’s land titling problem affects housing even when the money is available: a donated house cannot be put on land that nobody can prove is theirs. Churches, among the country’s larger landholders, are in a position to help by making titled parcels available for charity housing. For families at home and in the diaspora, the message is equally direct. Sort out the family land, get the title, survey or at least clear written permission from the owner, because without it even free help may not be able to reach you.

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