By Tyrone Reid, Staff ReporterAN ENTOURAGE including National Housing Trust (NHT) executives, political representatives and members of the press braved the searing heat yesterday to tour three sites that are part of the government-sponsored Inner-City Housing Project (ICHP).
The tour started at the site in Trench Town, St. Andrew, then moved to Denham Town and ended at the housing site located at 88-100 Spanish Town Road. The Trench Town site, which will have 252 units was the most advanced of the three. The projected completion date is May of next year.
Ninety-four of the 630 housing solutions in the Denham Town scheme are slated to be ready in January 2005, while the Spanish Town Road site, which will have 186 units should be ready by June 2005.
TWO AND THREE BEDROOM
Edward Seaga, Opposition Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston Western was on hand at the Denham Town site and he was pleased. Also, Portia Simpson Miller, MP for South West St. Andrew was at the Spanish Town Road site. The solutions to be provided under the ICHP will primarily be in the form of two and three bedroom apartments. The core unit is a four-storey walk up apartment building but two and three story apartment buildings as well as row houses will also be considered. The current construction price of the two-bedroom unit is $890,451 while the three-bedroom unit is $1,035,431.22. None of the houses will be rented.
Before the touring party departed the corporate offices of the NHT, Earl Samuels, managing director of NHT, defended his company's involvement with the multibillion dollar ICHP.
"I am here today to let you know that projects such as the ICHP and Relocation 2000, are squarely within the NHT's mission," said Mr. Samuels in response to questions raised about the appropriateness of the NHT's involvement in such projects.
