Delroy Chuck
THROUGHOUT OUR cities and towns, perhaps everywhere, we have allowed pockets of poverty, decay and obvious disintegration to appear and disfigure the landscape. Whether it is Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Negril or Kingston, the unsightly shacks and makeshift shelters that hold our poor people, especially the homeless squatters, are disgraceful testimonies to how we have marginalised so many thousands of our citizens. From these pockets of deterioration, we
are reaping the increasing indiscipline, social conflicts and violent criminality.
Jamaica is being torn apart by its disorderly, unregulated and ad hoc development. There is no cohesive, visionary, development plan. Actually, there is no programme or policy to stop the relentless slide and decay in our towns and cities. No one could imagine 20 or so years ago that Kingston would have descended into such a dilapidated, mess and bearing such evident signs of neglect and abandonment. Not even the government agencies want to remain and conduct business in downtown Kingston. At nights, it is a ghost town, which is probably true for many of our parish capitals.
ESCALATING CRIME WAVES
When we contemplate the escalating crime waves and wonder how to prevent them, we cannot ignore the conditions in which our people live, work and, I dare say, survive. The social conditions of the inner city and rural communities are festering grounds of frustration, hopelessness and violence. Yet, the government has no plans to rebuild and extricate these residents from their living nightmares. Even the inner-city housing schemes are unlikely to turn the tide of frustration and despair soon enough. The problem is not really money - enough is available for housing - but the lack of planning, foresight and innovation.
The pockets of poverty, squatter settlements and inner-city decay in Northern and Central St. Andrew, for example, cry out for excavation, removal and renewal. The problem is where do we put these people if we move them in order to reconstruct their communities. The process is known as decanting, in which people are moved, better houses built and, then, they return to a new and improved environment.
Well, I have put forward a novel suggestion, which I hope the National Housing Trust acts on immediately. I think the NHT should immediately use about 10 or more acres of lands at Up Park Camp to build apartments for 200 or more families, which could be used as temporary accommodations for displaced residents in our inner-city rebuilding programme, with the understanding that ultimately these apartments would remain for the soldiers when they are no longer needed for the inner-city dwellers.
In the beginning, 200 or more families would be moved from 10 or 20 acres of lands in Grants Pen, Birdsucker Lane, Whitehall, Hermitage, Back Bush, Mountain View, Allman Town, Franklin Town, etc., to facilitate the rebuilding and renewal of these communities. No doubt, it will take 10 or 20 years to complete, but a start must be made now.
In fact, the NHT could work in conjunction with private developers to put in multi-storey apartments and townhouse developments to lift and improve these communities, always bearing in mind that the displaced residents should be given first priority and provided with housing accommodation that they can reasonably afford. I acknowledge that the government input may be necessary as the compulsory acquisition of some reluctant landowners and abandoned tenement yards may be required to make the lands available for development.
COMPENSATION
No doubt, landowners should be offered some of these apartments as compensation and incentives to give up their property entitlements, and existing residents should be offered relocation grants and first option to purchase in the new developments.
More significantly, NHT needs to be much more innovative with the tens of billions of dollars available for housing developments. Perhaps NHT officials should visit China and observe the millions of housing solutions being built simultaneously in virtually every Chinese city and town. In any event, if Jamaica is to move forward, we have to properly and decently shelter our people and, instead of utilising more green spaces, it is time to eliminate the shantytowns and inner-city decay and replace them with decent housing accommodation.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at delchuck@hotmail.com.
