Major housing project for Trelawny

One of Jamaica’s poorest parishes, Trelawny will be given an opportunity to improve their standard of living through the groundbreaking housing project launched in the district of Tilson in Trelawny.

According to the chairman of the National Housing Trust (NHT) Howard Mitchell “Trelawny is a wonderful parish, it is beautiful here but it is also a poor parish. Most of our people cannot afford the houses will build and this is a reality, but there need to be solutions and this (the housing project) is a solution”.

The National Housing Trust in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Housing did the groundbreaking development for 288 service lots in the community. With several developments on stream for the parish Trelawny, the demand for housing will soon increase and the NHT and Water and Housing has taken a proactive approach to prevent squatting when such developments are completed.

“Developments are taking place in Trelawny, they are good developments and we welcome them, but unless housing in Trelawny is given first priority, these developments will actually work to your detriment” Mitchell warned as he encouraged stakeholders and residents to organize themselves in offering affordable housing solutions for the parish.

The development is also apart of NHT’s efforts to provide housing solutions for sugar workers across Jamaica. This, as approximately 50 percent of the lots in Tilson, Trelawny will be sold to workers from the Hampden Estate while the remainder will be made available to NHT contributors in the wider population.

Member of Parliament for North Trelawny, Dr. Patrick Harris concurred that such proactive move towards development must become apart of Jamaica’s political landscape if the country is to reduce the habitual practices of squatting.

“It is not fashionable in our present political culture, to plan long term, it is not fashionable to look at orderly development but in this area we have planned it and we are now in the process of executing those plans” Dr. Harris confessed. He further added that with this move to encourage orderly development it will facilitate wealth creation for the beneficiaries and the society at large.