It is welcome news that the government is set to re-launch the Inner-City Housing Programme (ICHP), seven months after Prime Minister Bruce Golding put the brakes on it. What is, however, deafening, is the silence in respect to the funding of the newly re-branded Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), that needs $20 billion to complete more than 80 projects started by Operation Pride (Programme for Resettlement and Integrated Development Enterprises).

It is hoped and expected that Dr Chang would bring to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) the simmering pot of discontent that hangs like the sword of Damocles over the fragile tourist industry.

We disagree with the conclusion reached by some that squatter settlements are the cause of the unacceptable levels of crime and violence. The root of the matter rests with the iniquitous distribution of land that inhibits access to persons operating outside of the formal process. The absence of a comprehensive land reform programme that would have altered inherited injustices, poor spatial planning, the absence of development controls and a framework that would enable marginalised persons access to land so that they can provide their own housing solutions, are also pertinent factors.

World leaders at the United Nations World Summit resolved to achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, and recognised the urgent need for increased resources for affordable housing and housing-related infrastructure. Jamaica is a signatory to that agreement, and in his maiden presentation at the United Nations, PM Golding admonished the developed states for their failures in carrying out their obligations and fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. The JLP administration must, however, set an example as a demonstration of its commitment to fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. It should set aside in the next budget, an appreciable sum to meet the demands of the Housing Agency of Jamaica. There are more than 4,000 informal communities scattered all over Jamaica – too many situated in vulnerable and hazardous areas, exacerbated by the demand for more than 40,000 housing solutions annually.

It is unreasonable and unconscionable to expect the working poor and the marginalised to bear the brunt of financing the required infrastructure to bring any squatter settlement to completion under the Operation PRIDE model. No matter how the Ministry of Housing re-brands the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC), it will not cut it unless there is a substantial budgetary allocation that would enable the Housing Agency of Jamaica to address the issue of housing solutions for the lower quintile of the population. Left unaddressed, we will condemn a large section of the Jamaican population to the vagaries of the gully banks.

Of immediate concern is the future of the more than 139 Operation PRIDE sites throughout Jamaica, which affects more than 30,000 families. Many of these sites are languishing in need of proper infrastructural development, having been neglected and abandoned by the NHDC and, in some instances, being overrun by gunmen through no fault of the beneficiaries, many of whom have invested millions of dollars in the schemes.

The recent onslaught of Tropical Storm Gustav, which devastated gully bank communities, is a compelling argument for the relevant Joint Committee of Parliament to broaden the terms of reference on squatting to include a comprehensive settlement policy, one that would also include addressing the mounting threats to urban safety and social justice, particularly urban crime and violence, forced eviction and insecurity of tenure, as well as natural and human-made disasters.

Too many of us in civil society who profess to be social advocates, in our desperate bid to win the favour of the mighty and to maintain the sources that sustain our livelihoods – the state, the donor agencies and the private sector – have betrayed our mandate, the interest of those for whom we should be speaking, and we run the risk of becoming collaborators to oppression.

O Dave Allen is a political activist from Western Jamaica.