KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness, during a tour of indigent housing in Western Kingston yesterday, said he was moved by conditions that “should not exist in Jamaica”.

“I have seen conditions which would not be allowed to continue, really bad, terrible. This area of Kingston, the Denham Town community is probably one of the oldest established residential communities in Jamaica. These communities are in excess of 60 years old, some of them, particularly mid-town and other areas, and since then there has not been any reinvestment in the repair, rehabilitation or renewal of the housing stock,” said Holness.

“I have seen buildings, 100 year old buildings — that are about to collapse— but still yet they accommodate families, in some cases three or four households live there,” the Prime Minister said in addressing several residents of the community.

Noting that his last visit to the area was in 2010 during the incursion, Holness said the conditions required immediate attention.

“The conditions in Rasta City are particularly disturbing and require urgent attention. I’ve also seen where the housing projects which were started in the 70’s and 80’s, many of them remain incomplete and residents who were located in areas with the expectation that the housing solutions would be completed so that they could take them up, they still remain in those temporary structures ,” Holness said, adding that the government has to complete these programmes which were started.

“I know that the NHT (National Housing Trust) started plans, they have them on their books, I think they have already completed designs. The issue now is to actually start work on it. You have been very patient, you have been very loyal people and that counts for something,  that means something. I’m sure that there are other areas in Jamaica, other constituencies that have similar conditions, but while we strive to address all of them, we’re gonna also put some effort into addressing this particular situation,” the Prime Minister said.

Member of Parliament for Kingston Western, Desmond McKenzie, was also present during the tour.

“We have also seen, and we have to give credit to your member of parliament, structures [like these] which are being designed and built for the people of the area. They are strong structures, solid structures but they are designed economically so they will come out very affordable,” Holness noted.

“So there are solutions to the problem and I’m particularly going to pay attention to this [building structure] to see the cost at which they have managed to complete this, because if the cost is reasonable then we would seek to replicate it right across the community,” Holness said.