Where are the 5,000 containerised homes that were promised by the Government to be delivered through the National Housing Trust (NHT) for persons who suffered loss during Hurricane Melissa last October?

Opposition spokesman on housing and sustainable living, Senator Dr Floyd Morris asked the question on Friday as the Senate debated the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill.

NaRRA is the body set up by the Government to lead the reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the category 5 hurricane that devastated southwestern parishes on October 28.

According to Morris’s estimates, some 180,000 houses were either destroyed or damaged during the hurricane. He also placed the estimate of damage to housing at $350 billion.

“That’s a significant portion of the estimate of damages that have been done to the national infrastructure,” he said.

“And so I was expecting that housing would be treated as a priority in any measure to build back stronger and build back a more resilient Jamaica. [But] as I read through the bill… one ‘deggeh deggeh’ reference in the bill towards housing,” he added.

According to Morris, “This doesn’t match up to the thousands of Jamaicans who have been affected by the hurricane in terms of the destruction of their houses”.

He also charged that the government was not serious as he reminded that the Government announced last October that it was going to purchase 5,000 container homes.

“That was in October [and we have had] November, December, January, February, March, April, May – seven months and not one house has been presented based on that particular announcement to the people of Jamaica,” said Morris.

“I want to know, weh di house dem deh. Where are the houses for the people that you have promised; the 5,000 container homes?” he said.

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

-Lynford Simpson