1,500 solutions to address Westmoreland housing deficit
MASEMURE, Westmoreland— Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the almost 1,500 housing solutions planned for Westmoreland over the next four years forms part of his administration’s crime-fighting strategy, as well as addressing the housing deficit in the parish.
“This parish, in particular, has a significant housing deficit and that housing deficit is driving the disorder growth of the parish, both items of the urban development and residential development,” Holness remarked during last Friday’s ground-breaking ceremony for the Darliston and Masemure housing developments in Westmoreland.
“Once there is disorderly development, crime and violence follows. And so, believe it or not, our housing strategy is also part of our crime fighting strategy,” the prime minister emphasised.
The planned housing solutions, he said, will be delivered in six developments: Braham with 44, Darliston with 32, Masemure with 106, Negril Sport with 1,200 for mostly hotel workers, Shrewsbury with 61, and 50 solutions in Yeast Plant.
Construction for the $95.4-million Darliston development, located in the Westmoreland Eastern constituency, is scheduled to commence in March and will last for five months.
In the meantime, Member of Parliament for the area, Luther Buchanan, who is also the Opposition spokesman on housing, has welcomed the housing development.
“Quality housing stock and quality commercial areas are important to rural Jamaica because we as a nation are experiencing a fundamental problem which is brain drain and rural urban migration. And both together is the worst nightmare that rural Jamaica can experience, because we need people with certain skill sets and intellect to build out Jamaica on an even plain for urban centres and rural parts of Jamaica,” said Buchanan during his remarks at the ceremony.
Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western, Dr Wykeham McNeill, in whose constituency the Masemure $182.3-million development falls, in welcoming the development argued that such a development is “correcting historical injustices”.
