KINGSTON, Jamaica—Opposition spokesperson on education, Damion Crawford, says the People’s National Party (PNP) has far better policies than the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to move Jamaican people from a state of dependence to independence.

“Now, the truth of the matter is that the JLP policies have never been geared towards moving people from dependence to independence. It’s to maintain people in a state of existence that you need them at all times. That you need them to eat the food,” Crawford said, while speaking at Jessie James Clarke’s annual divisional meeting on Sunday.

Crawford further criticised the timeframe put forward by the government to deliver 6,000 homes to Jamaicans islandwide under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP).

“That’s why you hear Andrew Holness say 6,000 people need a house. Free houses. They say the poorest people in this country weh need a house is 6,000. And him a build 30 a year. Now my maths tell me it will take 200 years for him to build 6,000 house, where Andrew ago be prime minister for 200 years. Now that is not a good policy. Now me glad for who get a house because anybody get a house, I’m glad for them. But from a concept of logic, logic is not on his side. But he wants to walk around and give a one-one house. Now, PJ [P J Patterson] in one year over a Portmore built 10,000 houses. So therefore, when it comes to house, they’re not in our category,” he reasoned.

Crawford noted that home ownership is at the forefront for the PNP and that the party will implement a rent-to-buy system.

“So what we are going to do moving forward is that we recognise that we want a system that make people who are informal in their operations can own a house. And so we have a rent-to-buy system…. We say ‘rent to buy’. We say you’re going to get a house and pay rent. And over time, contributions from that rent go towards paying your down payment. And the rent changing to a mortgage,” he noted, further highlighting the economic challenges that Jamaicans face renting properties while balancing other demands of life.

“You know how much people are paying them: 150,000 in New Kingston and 200,000, and they can’t save no money because that’ll bleed out all of them money. You know how much people make $300,000 and the rent takes $200,000 and the car loan takes $50,000 and the mother’s sick a country takes $30,000 more, and they have a sister weh a take CXC [Caribbean Examination Council] and them still affi a beg people even though they make $300,000. You know how much people can’t go to bank and get a loan because they are not in the formal sector to get a payslip? So we are saying that, if you have a sound, if you do you round robin, if you hustle a market, if you sell downtown, if you do your thing from the side and don’t have a payslip, isn’t it right that if you pay six months off the mortgage, that is reasonable qualification that you can pay the mortgage? Because the other man only pays three, short three-month payslip and they will pay the mortgage. So we say we are going to do that. The JLP say no we no fi do that,” Crawford said.