KINGSTON, Jamaica — State Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Senator Abka Fitz-Henley, says the Holness administration has invested billions from the National Housing Trust (NHT) to respond to the need for shelter across the country, which has intensified in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

Fitz-Henley made the declaration during debate in the upper house of Parliament on Friday on a bill to continue a drawdown from the NHT for budgetary support, which commenced in 2013.

The state minister revealed that following Hurricane Melissa, the NHT has disbursed $1.9 billion in home grants to 5,078 households at approximately $500,000 each following the passage of the hurricane last October

He told Parliament that, additionally, the NHT gave mortgage moratoriums for six months, pausing payments for 36,000 mortgages in affected areas, while peril insurance premiums were also waived.

Fitz-Henley affirmed that 213 special roof loans have also been disbursed at a value of $6.6 million adding that the NHT processed 3,835 insurance claims with a total value of $7 billion with $2.8 billion of the sum paid out so far as part of a phased process.

The state minister shared that the NHT has acquired 2,500 semi-permanent modular housing solutions at a total cost of $4.6 billion. And, he noted that 300 units arrived in Jamaica on Friday with the remaining 1,000 expected by July.

Fitz-Henley also mentioned the $10 billion ROOFS programme which has been specially tasked to respond to the housing needs of Jamaicans who faced severe damage to their dwellings after Hurricane Melissa, as he pushed back at claims from the Opposition that the Government has been sluggish in using NHT resources to respond to the need for shelter across the island.

“On the matter of housing, our posture on this matter is characterised by humility. We are always seeing to invest more heavily in housing and deliver greater margins for the people of Jamaica. But the opposition’s suggestion that the current administration has been under-investing and falling short in the area of housing compared to what obtained when we came into office is categorically false”, Fitz-Henley stated.

He told Parliament that  between 2016 and 2025, the Government has initiated 31,540 housing units through the NHT.

“This averages an increase of 1,194 more housing starts each year compared to the PNP administration which preceded 2016. That’s a 57 per cent increase in annual housing starts under the Government of Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Since 2016, this administration has delivered 21,166 housing completions and issued 67,249 mortgages. These numbers far exceed, in fact, they exceed by double digits, housing completions delivered by the PNP during their last two terms in office”, Minister Fitz-Henley asserted.

He said the Government has on occasions doubled during a fiscal year, the former PNP administrations’ highest expenditure on housing from the NHT during their last term, which he noted commenced in 2012 and stood at $28 billion.