Along with Agriculture, the other important economic and employment driver is Housing - construction of suitable housing for all citizens. However, there has always been a housing crisis in our country, with the population expanding and not enough homes being built to meet the increasing demands. Another reason for the housing crisis is private ownership of land. Prior to the enforcement of private ownership of land, housing was communal. Today, with the privatization of lands, the cost of owning a house is so high that it remains unaffordable to most, displacing many families.
So, what does owning a house means for Jamaican citizens in poverty? There are three things humans need to exist and survive: food, clothes, and shelter. Many of our people live below the poverty line and are unable to pay for food and clothes, in addition to childcare, health care, transportation, or education. Therefore, a large investment such as a house is far-reaching. The Department of Housing has failed our people as its budget and programs place less emphasis on providing shelter for citizens in need, but are more so focused on the profits they generate from landowners and the construction industry. Even though there has been an increase in houses built, homeownership has plummeted largely due to the loss of homes by previous homeowners. A large percent of the homeless population consists of previous homeowners.
The housing crisis is not something that can be resolved easily. It will take several generations before “everyone” can have a home. Nevertheless, everyone can have shelter through properly funded multi-family housing, along with the necessary socio-economic support and facilities needed.
Our families need support from the government to secure shelter for themselves and their children. Therefore, we will:
- Push for the building of affordable housing using the National Housing Trust (NHT) as the vehicle for homeownership. We will utilize the existing capital to have the NHT enter the mortgage market to better satisfy the rising housing demand of our people.
- Develop and implement programs based on communal ownership and responsibility.
- Planned residential and commercial road repair and maintenance, will be undertaken to improve safety and business efficacy.
- JPM will be changing the concept that homeownership means a plot of land with a house on it. It behooves us to aggressively pursue high-density multi-family forms of homeownership.
