PRIME Minister Andrew Holness has doubled down on his promise to deliver 70,000 housing solutions over the next five years.

Speaking at a handing-over ceremony on Thursday at Windcrest Hills in Hellshire, St Catherine, where the National Housing Trust (NHT) delivered titles for service lots to 70 new land owners, the prime minister said his Government remains committed to meeting the demand for affordable housing in Jamaica.

Holness said this will involve expanding the process of homeownership by regularising of communities that have been illegally settled, as well as increasing the development of affordable housing units.

“The role of the Government in this is to identify the lands and make them available at reasonable cost; to dedicate resources for the development of common infrastructure as much as possible, and to deal with the impediments in the permitting and regulatory environment to reduce those costs to ensure that the housing solution that comes to the market is timely and affordable,” said Holness.“The work has started, and you will hear more once we go to budget regarding how we are going to seek to achieve those 70,000 new housing solutions in the next five years.”

Admitting that the 70,000 houses promised in the lead up to last year’s general election might be a tall order to fill given the economic fallout brought on by the pandemic, Holness said the Government is on track with expanding the process of homeownership.

“And we are doing it in many ways. We are doing it through titling, by going through and regularising persons who have occupied lands but have no titles; we are doing it through the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), regularising communities that were informally settled; again we are doing it through the HAJ in bringing to market affordable, low-income housing solutions; and we are doing it through the NHT in providing support for the financial system for home ownership,” Holness said.

“We made a commitment in the last election that we are going to build 70,000 houses. The 70,000 housing solutions will not be easy to achieve, but we are going to go as close as possible as we can,” she added.

He argued that the supply of new housing goes to the root of addressing the long-standing issue of squatting in Jamaica, a tradition which, he said, has been facilitated by politicians over the years. “This kind of mentality of illegally and improperly settling land must end in Jamaica,” said Holness.

He added that with the new, affordable housing developments, Jamaica could see the revival a thriving middle class.

“If we are able to put 70,000 new housing solutions that are affordable on the market, we would have made a significant dent in the squatting problem. But we would have also made a significant dent in creating communities that would give you the basis for seeing the emergence of a strong middle class in the country.

“We need to create a growing, flourishing middle class in the country. Over the last four decades, we have seen the decimation of that, and that has resulted in all kinds of other social problems.

“This Government is committed to providing the mechanisms, the solutions, the pathway for every single Jamaican, whether poor or rich, to fulfil your dreams,” said Holness.