Opposition: NHT and HAJ have lost their way
OPPOSITION Senator Floyd Morris is calling for the National Housing Trust (NHT) and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) to be recalibrated to focus on their original mandate to provide affordable housing solutions for Jamaicans.
According to Morris, over the past six or so years “in my assessment, the NHT and HAJ have lost their way” in shifting away from this mandate, and engaging in initiatives that help keep the cost of housing beyond the reach of many Jamaicans.
“I see the prime minister in his [budget] presentation saying that this year the NHT will be focusing on low-income housing. We in the Opposition have been calling for a recalibration of the role and function of the NHT because the NHT was engaged in chasing down the market, venturing into construction of luxury houses that today the owners of those houses are complaining about the benefits that were promised to them and when you look at the cost of those houses, was over $30 million from an institutions whose mandate was to provide affordable houses. So if the NHT is engaged in that, what you’re gonna find is that they are going to help to push the price of houses out of the reach of the ordinary Jamaicans,” Morris said during his contribution to the debate on the Appropriation Act, 2024 during the sitting of the Senate on Wednesday.
Morris lamented that there are about 550,000 individuals contributing to the NHT and that 70 per cent of these individuals are earning below $31,000 per week and cannot afford a mortgage beyond $10 million. “So these houses that are being built are out of the reach of the majority of the contributors of the NHT,” he said.
The Opposition senator said he also has an issue with some of the recent initiatives by the NHT, including requiring individuals who are earning over $31,000 per week to go to private financial institutions for their mortgage.
“Let me tell you straight up front that I have a fundamental problem with that because you’re trampling on the rights of the contributor who has made a contribution to the NHT and you’re taking away that right or that choice that the individual has to come to the NHT where they are putting contribution in and sending that person elsewhere to get funds to borrow at a higher rate. Because at the NHT that person is going to get it [mortgage] at five per cent maximum; at the private financial institutions [it’s] nine per cent – four percentage points higher than what the NHT is providing,” he said.
Continuing he said: “I know NHT said that they are going to be providing the difference in the interest rate to the financial institution and I said to myself, how does that benefit the National Housing Trust as an institution? Isn’t it further placing a financial burden on the national institution and that is why we have concluded in the Opposition that the NHT needs a recalibration to focus on its core mandate of providing affordable houses for the contributors who contribute to the institution. I make no bones in saying that the NHT is a fabulous institution. It is one of the best government institutions that we have, but I am concerned about some governance issues,” he said.
Morris also highlighted a matter raised in the [budget] presentation of Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding regarding the $11.4 billion that have been extracted from the trust every year to finance the Government’s budget.
“It started in 2013, but under our Administration, it ended in 2016. And the Government, who through their supporters, have taken the matter to court, extended that extraction, from 2016 to 2028. The fact of the matter is that this $11.4 billion is needed by the trust to assist in providing affordable housing for our people,” he said.
Turning to the HAJ, he noted that this is another institution that has been mandated as a State agency to provide affordable housing by using lands that are owned by government to assist in various housing development projects across the country and contribute in significantly reducing the cost of housing.
But he noted that in recent times, the HAJ is also contributing to pushing up the cost of housing on the market.