KINGSTON, Jamaica— Local Government and Rural Development Minister Desmond McKenzie says by next year each parish in Jamaica will have a shelter to house people who are homeless.

McKenzie gave the update during his constituency conference in West Kingston earlier this week where he also raked the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) over the coals for what he argued was the disrespect of poor Jamaicans when they had charge of government.

“What has been the response of a caring and understanding Government of Prime Minister Andrew Holness? We build more wards in our infirmaries. We build drop-in centres. Every parish in Jamaica by next year will have a shelter where homeless people can go and sleep and enjoy some comfort,” McKenzie told Labourites gathered at Tivoli Gardens High.

McKenzie says the Government will improve upon its work of opening the first transitional centre for the homeless in the Corporate Area and building scores of houses for the indigent across several parishes, including Clarendon and St Mary. He then slammed the PNP’s track record in managing Local Government.

“What the Andrew Holness-led Government has done since 2016 has never been done for local Government since 1944. When the street people needed help when they were in Government, their response to the street people crisis was to get a dumper truck, put the people in the truck and carry dem to a mud lake. We build indigent housing, not out of board but we expose people to a decent form of living. Dem deh man deh can’t test we when it come on to Local Government!” McKenzie charged.

The Local Government Minister also insisted that he’s been on a mission to rid the portfolio of tribalism and rejected as false what he said are claims that he has been withholding funds from municipal corporations.

“It is the Government of Prime Minister Andrew Holness that has brought respect and stability to local government in this country and I challenge any of them to question our stewardship of local government and I am going to say it publicly that one of the things we had to do is get rid of the tribal nature of the approach to Local Government,” the minister told his constituency conference.