Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter THE WRATH of previously disgruntled inner-city residents and their Members of Parliament (MP), who were
dissatisfied with the minimal employment opportunities made available by the Inner City Housing Project (ICHP) will soon be appeased. This as the National Housing Trust (NHT), that is spearheading the project, has promised more jobs as the project progresses.
"Later, during the construction of the infrastructure, installation of finishes, the construction of community facilities and
landscaping, significantly more
persons will be employed," said Dr. Vincent George, the NHT's senior general manager and ICHP project manager.
Dr. George went to the extreme of labelling as incorrect the notion that just a few jobs would be created throughout all stages of construction. However, he explained that not much
manual labour would be needed in the early goings, because of the nature of the ICHP.
"During the initial stages, few labourers will be required since we are using system building designs," explained Dr. George. He also stated that the minimal labour requirement should not come as a shocker to MPs as
"The employment possibilities were discussed with political
representatives in all the
communities.
"While they would have
preferred the number of jobs to be higher (as would the NHT), they understood the reasons for our approach." However, in early September, during a tour of some of the ICHP sites, Portia Simpson Miller tagged the lack of
employment opportunity as a
'big disappointment for the
constituency'.
SEAGA LOBBIES
Despite declaring his knowledge of the minimal employment possibilities, while on the tour, leader of the Opposition, Edward Seaga, still lobbied for more jobs. "Well, this is not a site that is going to have a lot of employment and we made that quite clear, so it is not something that there is a high expectation of employment. But, we do hope that it is many more than who we have now because there are only 10 people on site and people are looking
forward to employment, but I wouldn't say that this is
considered a primary employment project," reasoned Mr. Seaga.
The housing 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 just over $1 million.
