SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Jamaica — The Government intends to deliver 6,000 homes islandwide through the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness has said, signalling a sharp scale-up of a scheme that has so far produced around 300 houses.
Speaking at a handover ceremony in Westmoreland on February 7, the Prime Minister said the programme would receive a sizeable allocation in the coming budget year, the Jamaica Information Service reported. More units are already under construction.
Building where people already live
Dr. Holness drew a contrast between the NSHP and earlier public housing efforts. Instead of concentrating beneficiaries in large new estates, the programme builds on land where families already live, spreading the benefit across communities. He argued that this avoids creating isolated settlements that can decline into inner-city conditions.
The programme is also to be extended to provide housing for tourism workers, a move the Prime Minister said would be of particular benefit to Westmoreland, a parish that has seen rapid growth in informal settlements.
Four families handed keys
At the ceremony, Beatrice Appleby and Maureen Adams of Porters Mountain and Patricia Webb of New Galloway, Whithorn, each received a two-bedroom unit, while Samantha Fray of Savanna-la-Mar received a three-bedroom house. Among the recipients were people who had lost homes to fire, a pensioner and others in vulnerable circumstances.
What it means for the housing market
Six thousand homes would represent a twentyfold increase on what the NSHP has delivered to date, so the size of the budget allocation will be the real test of the pledge. The programme serves the poorest households, who are largely outside the mortgage market, so it will not directly add supply for typical buyers. But its planned push into tourism-worker housing touches a real pressure point in resort parishes, where low-wage staff compete with visitors and investors for rental accommodation. Landlords and investors in Westmoreland and other tourism areas should watch how that expansion is rolled out, as it could ease demand at the lower end of the rental market over time.
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