Government Turns to a Christian Charity to Build More Social Housing

• The Government will partner with Food For The Poor on social housing
• The announcement came at a house handover in Berkshire, St Catherine
• The homes fall under the New Social Housing Programme
• The Prime Minister said every recipient undergoes a social investigation

Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced in January 2024 that the Government would partner with Food For The Poor, the Christian charity, to build more houses under the New Social Housing Programme. He made the announcement at the handover of a two-bedroom house in Berkshire, St Catherine, on January 18.

The programme sits under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme and is run through the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. It is aimed at the country’s poorest households.

Holness said the charity was a natural partner, telling the audience that “we feel confident that we can enter into a meaningful partnership with Food For the Poor.” He added that the organisation has “the building supplies and the technology, as well as the expertise to construct the dwellings.”

He also defended how houses are allocated, saying that “anyone who gets a house is someone who is genuinely in need, because a very thorough social investigation would have been undertaken.” The Jamaica Information Service reported that land ownership is verified before funds are released for a house.

The partnership formalises a long relationship between the State and a faith-based builder of low-cost homes. For Jamaica, it means public housing money is being delivered in part through a Christian charity’s supply chain and design. For churches and community leaders, who often know which families are in the worst conditions, it is a reminder that their knowledge feeds into who is helped. And because land ownership is checked first, families at home and in the diaspora with unresolved family land have another reason to sort out titles.

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