SIX more families in Westmoreland are to benefit from Government’s social housing programme, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie told a recent meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.

These will be in addition to a house being constructed for a family in the Sheffield Division in the parish, and another which is slated to be built in the Cornwall Mountain Division.

“The criteria that makes one eligible for these houses are that they must be a registered poor, and that the investigation and the determination will be made by the inspector of poor [for the parish], working with the Board of Supervision in the Ministry of Local Government,” McKenzie said.

On a subsequent visit to the house being constructed in the Sheffield Division, the minister told journalists at a press briefing that he hopes the new unit will herald a new beginning for the family.

“I am looking at the commencement of a change in the fortune of a family. There are hundreds of Jamaicans just like this family in a similar situation. We will never have all the resources that are required to offer the assistance, but at least we are making a start,” he said.

The two-bedroom house will have its own water harvesting system and will be fully furnished when handed over to the family.

He also commended the team from the Poor Relief Department in the parish “because it is not easy to deal with so many cases”.

Councillor of the Sheffield Division Garfield James said the building of the house for the family was “an act of love”.

“I want to applaud [Minister McKenzie] and the team who have seen it fit to have taken on this initiative in an aggressive way, where, in short order, it has borne fruit and we are here to witness that. It can only get better from here, and there are many families in the respective communities and, by extension, the constituency, who are in dire need, but we can only start and deal with [them] one by one,” he said.

“We want to commend the effort, and I pledge to work with the Member of Parliament, the minister and, by extension, the team to ensure that this project [is completed] in a fruitful and timely manner,” James added.

Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western Moreland Wilson said he was pleased with the construction of the house.

“We have a lot of social cases in Westmoreland, and whatever we can do as a Government [to assist], I endorse it,” he said.

Wilson noted that the additional social houses announced by the minister “shows that this Government cares and that the minister is looking in the right direction” .

Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Councillor Bertel Moore, meanwhile, said that the additional houses were “a good gesture”.

“We will be very happy to get (them). We have several people who are in dire need, but I leave that to the Poor Relief Department because they are the ones who go out there and see the needs of people,” he said.

McKenzie was on a working visit to Westmoreland, during which he also officially opened the recently rehabilitated Tivoli Road in Bath district in the parish. The roadway was repaired at a cost of $14 million.

He also toured the Savanna-la-Mar Market and the Westmoreland Infirmary during his visit.

— JIS