Prime Minister Andrew Holness is encouraging persons building housing units to look to the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP) as the standard to follow.
He said that dwellings constructed under the programme stand as models of adherence to proper building codes and regulations.
He noted that the structures, though simple, are “well built,” and can “withstand almost any natural disaster that would come.”
Speaking on Friday (May 24), at the handover of a house in Rocky Point, Clarendon, the Prime Minister said, “we took into consideration that this area is flood-prone and so in the engineering, provisions were made to lift the building.
“This is a very important part of what the social housing programme does; we go into communities and where buildings may be substandard, or not in keeping with the building code, we use these buildings as demonstrations to persons who want to build,” he said.
In total, five houses were handed over to beneficiaries in Clarendon on Friday by the Prime Minister – three in Clarendon South Eastern and two in Clarendon South Western.
Holness said the NSHP is part of the Government’s social safety net and will have an impact for generations to come.
Conceptualised by Prime Minister Holness and implemented in 2018, the NSHP is geared at providing safe housing for vulnerable families, giving priority to persons in imminent danger.
The NSHP operates under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment Programme (HOPE) under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.
