TILSTON, Trelawny — HOUSING Minister Dr Horace Chang is moving to curb the squatting that is expected to follow the development of the US$2-billion Harmony Cove resort project.

“Hundreds of thousands of people will move into Trelawny to meet the tourists the one day they come off the ship,” he said, noting that discussions are at an advanced stage between his ministry and the Office of the Prime Minister to implement an “off-site infrastructure to look at what is required in Trelawny to prevent squatting”.

“The permanent secretary in that ministry will co-ordinate it. We have to raise the level of activity of that committee,” Chang explained.

According to Chang, Prime Minister Bruce Golding “is taking steps to have the entire North Trelawny coast come under the UDC to ensure some level of professional co-ordination of planning and development of the area”.

Noting that there were over “30,000 informal housing solutions in Montego Bay, Chang pointed out that just over 10,000 hotel rooms exist in the tourism mecca.

“I am determined to ensure that in the case of Harmony Cove, we don’t have a repeat of what happened in Montego Bay,” Chang said last Friday as he broke ground for 288 service lots under the Sugar Workers Housing Programme in Tilston, Trelawny.

He added: “The entire city of Montego Bay, up until two years ago, was the largest resort area with a population of 200,000 dependent on tourism and a hotel room capacity of less than 8,000. I think we have over 10,000 now. That is the population coming to Duncans and if we don’t build houses for them in an organised manner, you going to have 200,000 squatters into Duncans very soon,” he said.

According to Chang, sugar workers are expected to benefit from 150 of the housing units, while 138 will be sold on the open market.