Multiple families living in squalid conditions at 41-43 Hanover Street in Kingston have received some semblance of hope that their living conditions will be vastly improved.

Last Thursday Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness broke ground at the location for construction of a 21-unit housing development named ‘The Haven’. The only issue for the residents now is to figure out where they will live for the next 12 months — the construction period.

Monique Codwell, who is expected to be a recipient of one of the units, was beyond happy to see that there are plans to construct a complex that will allow her and 82 other people, including children, to feel dignified when it is complete and they occupy their new homes.

“I feel comfortable with what the Government is doing right now. I wouldn’t mind if the project could start today and finish tomorrow. I wouldn’t want a next Government to come and take it over because no house is going to be built. I feel that if things change, there will be pure badness and don a go tell you that you can’t live over here and you will get bruk up,” she said.

“I wouldn’t mind if God just guide my prime minister so everything can go smoothly. I have four children and one in my belly. Today is ground breaking, and mi just want to know seh when dem tek we off we are safe and we at least have a roof over our heads until construction is complete, because not everyone can find somewhere to go during the construction,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“I feel nice because there is no badness like one time. Nobody is coming with guns to tell us that we have to come off the property. We feel happy to know that we won’t have to go by force. I feel 100 per cent nice,” Codwell added.

She shared that many years ago the property was just an open lot where people desperate to find somewhere to live started to build houses.

“Initially, three to four houses were over here with families,” she explained.

She told the Observer that the Government at the time instructed the people that they had to move off the land. They were told that new houses would be built on the property to replace the wooden structures they had erected. She said the residents complied with the request and some of them were relocated to a building at the corner of Hanover and Laws streets. But the conditions in that building were bad and the residents couldn’t bear it.

“The people moved off the land and lived over the next side of the road. The next side never made any sense to them so they moved back over and captured back the room dem because they found out that where they put them, when it rained, they got wet and it wasn’t safe,” Codwell said.

“People started to take the windows and doors off the houses where they used to live so they came back and put on back the doors and decided they would stay and live until the Government came back and told them to move. They wanted to know that if they were to come off the premises, this time they could know that where they would be relocated would be safe. Not everyone could pay rent or find room to live at the time,” she explained.

Another woman, who gave her name as Miriam, claimed that her mother was the first resident to occupy the property decades ago. According to her, she wants the authorities to provide more information to the people living at the property, claiming that she was taken by surprise to see the prime minister and the Member of Parliament for Kingston Central Donovan Williams breaking ground for the housing project.

While she welcomed the development, she said that she was not in for any more surprises.

“I don’t know what is going on, but I would like the truth and the honest truth. I don’t want nobody to go round mi. I am supposed to be on the list to get a house because I live in here long time. We are the first to squat here. The man who was in charge of the place asked my mother who put her on the property. She told him she had nowhere to go. He said she wasn’t to give the place to anybody else. My mother couldn’t stand to see people want somewhere to live and can’t find it, so she shared the place with them,” the woman said.

“From Government took over and said they are going to build three apartments, see di room dem deh. Some nuh have no sewage system. Me alone have bathroom and toilet.”

In 2020, one of the occupants of the property, Marjorie Chin-Lewis, told journalists that her life and that of the other residents was like a roller coaster.

She said the residents were instructed by a State agency to vacate the property and were temporarily placed in a dilapidated building at 60 Hanover Street. They said a promise was made that they would be returned to the land after housing units were constructed. However delays set in.

According to Chin-Lewis, the conditions at 60 Hanover Street were so poor that when it rained, all their belongings got wet and damaged by the water. She also claimed that there was a rodent infestation.

Chin-Lewis said her elderly mother, who was constantly getting wet when it rained, eventually died from pneumonia.

Not being able to cope with the conditions at 60 Hanover Street, Chin-Lewis said she moved back to 41 to 43 Hanover Street which, she said, was much safer.

“From we come back over here we feel and sleep more comfortable. We lived at 43 Hanover Street for many years. When my mother gets access to the land, dem seh we could live as long we want, but [the property was bought] and them put we over 60 Hanover Street, but when the rain fall we soak. My mother died on July 14, 2019. The conditions were bad because rain flood the place like river. It come offa di building and water just come straight dung pon we,” she shared.

Dogs lying around inside the tenement yard at 41 to 43 Hanover Street in Kingston on Thursday, August 7, 2025. Last Thursday Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness broke ground at the location for construction of a 21-unit housing development named ‘The Haven’.

One of the dwellings at 41-43 Hanover Street in Kingston where ground was broken last Thursday for a 21-unit housing development named ‘The Haven’.