Some 924 modular or containerised houses intended for victims of Hurricane Melisa are already in Jamaica with hundreds more on the way.

Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley made the disclosure in a quick response to the question raised by Opposition Senator Dr Floyd Morris before Senate proceedings adjourned for the lunch break on Friday during the ongoing debate on the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill.

Before the lunch break, Morris, the Opposition spokesman on housing and sustainable living said, “I want to know, weh di house dem deh. Where are the houses for the people that you (Government) have promised; the 5,000 container homes?”.

The visually-impaired senator added that, “I look down at the wharf and I caw find dem”.

Fitz-Henley provided the answer, telling the Senate that on Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, who has responsibility for housing, convened a meeting of various government agencies, including the National Housing Trust, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management and the Social Housing Programme, and advised that thousands of modular or container homes have been purchased, 934 of which are already on the island.

“An additional 700 are on the way and 700 additional will follow,” Fitz-Henley shared.

“Senator Morris engaged the vernacular and asked ‘weh di house dem deh’. The answer is hundreds of houses are right here in Jamaica and the Administration will fulfill its commitment to make whole Jamaicans, who have been dislocated by the ravages of Hurricane Melissa,” Fitz-Henley said.

He also told Morris that, “The modular homes programme will not be plagued by the corruption that was embedded in Operation Pride where hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money were pilfered and a PNP activist was taken into custody”.

“In the Administration of Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, we take matters of accountability and probity seriously. The modular houses programme is subject to rigorous oversight,” Fitz-Henley added.

“So Senator, yuh asked weh di houses dem deh, you have had your answer within a few minutes,” added Fitz-Henley.

–Lynford Simpson