Letter of the Day | Begin transformation with genuine commitment to build back better

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The passage of Hurricane Melissa has not only exposed a persistent structural weakness in Jamaica’s housing landscape, it has also revealed the troubling absence of a coherent national housing policy.

In the parishes of St James, Hanover and especially Westmoreland, communities have borne the brunt of the devastation. Many houses destroyed by the hurricane were located in low-lying areas or unstable hillsides where flooding and landslides are recurring threats. Others were constructed on lands without formal tenure or proper infrastructure.

If Jamaica is serious about building back better, it would not be prudent to simply rebuild these homes in the same vulnerable locations.

What Jamaica urgently needs is a deliberate sites-and-services strategy. Under such a model, the State would identify safe lands and prepare them with basic infrastructure – access roads, drainage, water supply, electricity corridors and properly surveyed house lots.

This approach is not new. Programmes such as Operation PRIDE demonstrated how land regularisation and serviced sites could transform informal settlements into stable communities by providing secure tenure and guiding development.

The real housing crisis in Jamaica is not simply a shortage of houses; it is a shortage of accessible land and a system that leaves the poorest contributors paying into a housing fund from which they may never benefit.

At the centre of this debate lies the National Housing Trust. For several years the Government has drawn approximately $11.4 billion annually from the NHT to support the national budget.

Redirecting a portion of these funds toward serviced land developments, site clearance and basic infrastructure would allow the NHT to fulfil its mandate while providing real pathways to housing security for families in the bottom income quantile.

It must become a central pillar of the national recovery effort where key state agencies pool resources and align their mandates toward providing safe land, basic infrastructure and resilient housing solutions for vulnerable Jamaicans.

State agencies should also provide resilient building plans designed to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes, including stronger foundations, reinforced columns and hurricane straps securing zinc roofs.

The transformation of Jamaica must begin with a genuine commitment to building back better.

O. DAVE ALLEN