Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Wendy Henderson (left) accepts the keys to her new home under the Inner City Housing Project from Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at a handing over ceremony in Trench Town on Wednesday. - Photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

PRIME MINISTER Portia Simpson Miller has again stated her administration's intention to use money from the National Housing Trust (NHT) to fund projects in impoverished areas.

Her latest statement on a move that has angered the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) came on Wednesday during a presentation of keys to benificiaries of homes in the South St. Andrew community of Trench Town, constructed under the NHT's Inner-City Housing Project.

Many of the social problems faced by the country today have their roots in the home or lack of a home, the Prime Minister said. "That's why I am not concerned about the threats of bangarang if we touch NHT money, because we are going to touch more NHT money to provide for the poor," she declared.

Defiant utterance

Mrs. Simpson Miller's defiant utterance was another jab at JLP leader Bruce Golding who, in his Budget speech, said that Government's plans to use NHT and NIS money to fund various projects was unethical.

The Prime Minister's address went over well with residents who turned out to see the opening of the new scheme in Trench Town which has 252 apartments. The majority (168) are three-bedroom units while the remainder have two bedrooms.

One of the new owners, Natarine Brown-Nelson, said owning a home "was a dream come true."

"It's an opportunity that once I thought I didn't have, but now that it has unfolded, I'm really thanking God," she said.

Projects to come

Former NHT chairman, Kingsley Thomas, announced the $5 billion project in late 2003. On completion, 5,000 homes will be built; work on the first schemes started in mid-2004.

Wednesday's ceremony was the second by the NHT. In July, 2005 some 94 units were handed over to recipients at Little King Street in Denham Town, located in the constituency of West Kingston.

Other Inner-City Housing Project schemes in Kingston are being constructed at White Wing in Olympic Way and Majesty Gardens which is located in the Prime Minister's South West St. Andrew constituency.

Rural schemes are being constructed in Port Maria, St. Mary; Falmouth, Trelawny; and Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

Paul Johnson, a recipient under the Inner-City Housing Project, shows off his keys at a handing over ceremony on Wednesday.