KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Effective July 1, the National Housing Trust (NHT) will provide a grant for mortgagors with disabilities or who reside with and care for family members with disabilities, in a move to meaningfully improve benefits for the disabled.

The grant is to be used to retrofit or upgrade the beneficiary’s dwelling to make it suitable to serve the needs of the disabled person.

This was announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in his Budget Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on March 21.

He said the Trust will also provide further subsidies by way of a special mortgage discount in cases where a contributor has a mortgage with another recognised financial institution and meets the requirements under this initiative.  

Holness further announced that the NHT will also, in the upcoming financial year, be assisting with the improvement of the physical facilities and living quarters at police stations within a 10-mile radius of an NHT scheme.

The Trust will provide the Ministry of National Security with grant funding to facilitate this initiative.

In addition, the NHT will, over a two-year period, be spending some $4 billion to upgrade selected NHT housing schemes across Jamaica that were built in the first 10 years of the entity’s operations. This project will mark the agency’s 40th anniversary and is part of the ‘Jamaica 55’ initiative.

The work is to improve schemes that require maintenance of shared infrastructure and common facilities. It will make proper provisions for garbage disposal, common play areas, and amenities now standard in new schemes.