PM to 'eradicate need for squatting' in Jamaica

Squatting will be a thing of the past under new home ownership plans, says Jamaica’s prime minister.

Andrew Holness has promised to make owning a habitable property so easy using “effective mechanisms to build communities”.

Speaking as work because on a new housing development in Birds Hill, Clarendon, he said: "A large part of the problem we face is that communities pop up overnight without proper planning and we are not going to continue the haphazard development of our country.

“We are going to build housing solutions that are affordable.

“Squatter settlements cannot continue because disorderly settlement breeds crime and violence and social disorder. It makes it difficult to bring services to your communities.”

The first phase of the new development will see 150 new homes built, but this will increase to 565 once the project is complete.

The prime minister said his government’s strategy is to build so many houses that people will have real opportunity to own their home instead of capturing a piece of land.

"The squatting issues that exists now exists because we have not put in place the effective mechanisms to build communities and housing to meet the housing demands that exists,” Holness added.

During 2017 Jamaica has see ground has been broken for over 2,000 residences.

Nigel Clarke, chairman of the National Housing Trust, said that housing starts by the organisation will reach 5,500, more than the entire number from 2012 to 2015.