MOVING AGGRESSIVELY TO PROVIDE HOUSING SOLUTIONS

By: WARREN WINT

Minister of Water and Housing, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, congratulates Miss Rosalee Shirley after handing her the keys to her housing unit at Andrew Court, Olympic Gardens, recently. Minister of Education and Member of Parliament for West Central St. Andrew, Hon. Andrew Holness, is in the background.

The year 2009 began with Minister of Water and Housing, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, pledging to take a tough stance on joint venture housing developments, declaring that the Ministry will be carrying out greater scrutiny of future joint venture housing projects, to ensure that the country benefits fairly in agreements forged with partners.

"We expect people in joint ventures to deliver and we have to ensure that the quality expected is maintained," the Minister stressed.

He said the Ministry had revised the Public-Private Sector Joint Venture Policy and was looking at legal recourse as needed.  "If we have to take them to court, then we take them to court," Dr. Chang said.

He was  speaking after a tour of Cedar Grove Housing Scheme, in Portmore, St. Catherine on January 7. This community is an 800-unit joint venture housing development project, which he said was a good concept, while adding that the management of the venture had gone badly, leaving behind problems which the Ministry will have to address.

"Joint ventures were brought in to use the private sector capacity to deliver houses of better quality and more efficiently, since the Ministry was thought to be too involved politically. The fact is that they have all failed, except for one or two established contractors. We certainly hope to reverse that in future joint venture developments, but in this case we have a problem, which we are looking at to see if we can bring about a solution," he told JIS News.

Affordable Housing Solutions

The Minister made it clear to the nation that the Ministry would be focussing on affordable housing solutions for the working class and for middle income persons, since a shortfall in such units had been identified in the system.

He reiterated this while touring sections of Portmore, St. Catherine, along with Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Ms. Genefa Hibbert; His Worship the Mayor of Portmore, Keith Hinds; Member of Parliament for South Central St. Catherine, Ms. Sharon Haye-Webster and a team of technocrats from the Ministry and the Housing Agency of Jamaica. The team was looking at potential sites for housing developments.

"We have to find some housing solutions near the Corporate Area,” the Minister said.

In the first week of February, Dr.  Chang received the first draft of the National Housing Policy, which contained strategies to deliver at least 10,000 new housing solutions for Jamaicans by the 2010/2011 financial year. The plan was being drafted by a group of experts from the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology (UTech).

The plan came as a result of a $21.6 million contract signed between the two universities and the Ministry in 2008, and on the heels of several other initiatives within the Ministry, including the provision of titles to residents from communities all over the island, and fact-finding tours led by the Minister to various locations aimed at locating adequate shelter sites.

In the middle of February, much excitement was generated when an announcement was made that the Ministry, along with the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ)  would be seeking to work with a Chinese firm to provide low income housing solutions for Jamaicans.

The HAJ, by that time, had several meetings with the Chinese firm, Complant International Engineering and Development Corporation and agreed, in principle, to plan, design and build between 1,000 and 1,200 housing solutions. Speaking then, Dr. Chang revealed that the Ministry could pinpoint several locations to build the solutions on lands it already owns and said it was agreed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would  be drafted for signature between the parties.

UN-HABITAT

While officials of the Ministry, under the direction of the Minister, continued with plans to increase housing starts to shelter the nation, it was announced that State Minister in the Ministry, Hon. Everald Warmington, had been elected President of the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT) for the period 2009 to 2011.

 Mr. Warmington explained that he would use his position to focus the UN body on the needs of countries in Latin American and the Caribbean, including Jamaica.  “As President, I will have to make sure that funds are put aside, to look keenly at our slum situation," he stated.

In this capacity, the State Minister has the final say on the work to be undertaken by UN-HABITAT during the two years of his tenure. His signature will be required on all work programmes, draft resolutions, decisions on the location and financing of projects as well as the general operations of the Governing Council.

The State Minister  hit the ground running by announcing that Jamaica would benefit from a Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP), under the aegis of the UN-HABITAT and the European Commission.

"The programme aims to contribute to the reduction of regional human development disparities, including reducing the gender gap and improving environmental sustainability. As such, Phase I of the programme will consist of rapid profiling of urban conditions in Montego Bay, St. James; May Pen, Clarendon, and Old Harbour, St. Catherine. The analysis of such profiling will focus on four themes: governance, slums, gender and HIV/AIDS, and the environment," Mr. Warmington noted.

"The implementation of this programme in Jamaica is very opportune, coming at a time when there is a concerted thrust by the Government to effectively address the issue of squatting, with the establishment of a dedicated squatter management unit within the Ministry,” he added.

Additional Housing Projects

Dr. Chang broke ground on April 1 for the construction of 56 townhouses in Stadium Gardens, Kingston. The construction of the housing units, which is being facilitated by the HAJ, will be completed in one year, the Minister said.  

On May 4, the HAJ announced that it would be moving to prepare the technical plans and seek the necessary approvals for the Luana Gardens housing development in St. Elizabeth, following the recent selection of a design of the project. The plans are for the development of 850 housing solutions, while ground will be broken by the end of the current fiscal year, which ends at March 31, 2010.

In the meanwhile, in an effort to keep down the cost of construction in the recession hit industry, Minister Chang announced on July 28 that the Ministry was looking at the use of Concre-Panels to build low cost houses.

According to Dr. Chang, the Ministry was pursuing discussions with Free Form Factory Limited, a local manufacturer of expanded polystyrene (EPS) concre-panels, with a view to utilising the material in the development affordable housing solutions in Jamaica.

The Minister made the announcement when he, and technical persons from the Ministry  toured the factory located at 6 Nanse Pen in Kingston, where they were given a first-hand demonstration of how the concre-panels are manufactured, and shown a model house, which was built using the material.

At the end of July, residents of Andrew’s Mews on Olympic Way in Olympic Gardens became the first beneficiaries of a completely new housing scheme and Minister Chang was justifiably proud.

"You have a house with enough space so you can expand, and we will work with you to provide the design and help you to lay out something that you can feel proud of," the Minister told cheering residents.

Altogether, 11 new housing units and three commercial structures built at a cost of $15.8 million were delivered to beneficiaries. The one-bedroom units were constructed at the corner of Holts Road and Olympic Way, and replaced board shacks in which the residents were living at the site of a former community centre at the same location.

Housing Policy

The second draft of the Housing Policy was delivered by the technocrats of the University of the West Indies and University of Technology, in July. In September, four public consultations were conducted on the draft, two in Montego Bay, St. James and two in Kingston.  The Ministry wrapped up the consultations on  September 24, held at the University of Technology.

An earlier draft of the original Housing Policy contained critical strategies for the delivery of at least 10,000 new housing solutions by the 2010/11fiscal year. The document was reviewed by a technical committee, established by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Ms. Genefa Hibbert, and comprised representatives of the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), National Housing Trust (NHT), Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), and Jamaica Mortgage Bank (JMB). Reviews were also conducted by an intra-Ministerial committee comprising several of the Ministry's departments.

More Housing Solutions

True to his stated aims, a beaming Dr. Chang broke ground for the construction of 130 serviced lots and 100 one-bedroom houses in Portmore Villas 2B, St. Catherine, on September 25. The construction of the serviced lots and houses, which are to be sold at average prices of $1.2 million and approximately $3 million, respectively, is a development project of the HAJ.

Managing Director of the HAJ, Joseph Shoucair, said that this was the third phase of the Portmore Villas project, which targets working people of modest means who have saved cash, or are able to access an NHT benefit. Phase 1 involved the construction of 381 serviced lots, and phase 2(A), 206 serviced lots. The new project is being constructed at a cost of $550 million. 

Strata Titles

On October 27, The Registration (Strata Titles) Amendment Act was passed in the House of Representatives with 26 amendments. The Bill, which was piloted by Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding amended the Registration Strata Titles Act to, among other things, establish a Commission of strata corporations and to specify the duties of that commission.

The Registration (Strata Titles) Act makes provisions for the management and regulation of housing complexes and apartments. It also creates an implied covenant between a proprietor and a corporation that the proprietor or his heirs, will pay any outstanding charges owed to the corporation prior to a transfer. There are some 2,345 registered strata properties in Jamaica

Speaking three days later, on October 30, Minister Chang said that changes to the country's strata legislation should help with establishing appropriate housing solutions for urban areas that need multi-family units. However, Dr. Chang said that affordable financing is also needed to assist with this process.

48 Hour Houses

On November 17, Dr. Chang, accompanied by Prime Minister Golding, viewed a model home constructed by the Canadian company, Global Pre Cast Homes. The Prime Minister viewed the model unit on Oxford Road, at the request of the NHT and the Tourism Product Development Company Ltd (TPDCo). This model unit drew media attention earlier in the year when it was first put up on lands opposite the old United States embassy on Oxford Road, in Kingston.

"This is an appropriate, practical, technology that could allow a trained team to turn out a house in 48 hours  for less than $2 million, which would put the units within the reach of low-income earners who qualify for an NHT benefit. This could help us to overcome problems of squatting in resort and other areas. Part of the problem in Jamaica is a lack of capacity to deliver on time," Dr. Chang said.

At the same time, the Prime Minister was given an assurance that the houses could be certified as being of a safe standard for Jamaican conditions, including withstanding hurricanes. The model house is of prefabricated concrete and steel and covers 350 square  feet, on a concrete base. The design system can be assembled for larger units.