Government to upgrade ‘big yards’
The Government says it will unveil a new social housing programme (SHP) next fiscal year.
The project will see the provision of indigent housing, relocation of vulnerable communities and the upgrading of tenements or ‘big yards’.
“The new SHP will be administered under the housing component of the HOPE (Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment) programme through which employment opportunities will be provided for HOPE interns,” Governor-General Sir Patrick Allen said in Parliament yesterday.
The programme appears to be the restart of the Inner-City Housing Project (ICHP), which was first launched in 2004, and was financed from the National Housing Trust (NHT). Under the ICHP, the housing stock in several Corporate Area communities was upgraded.
In 2008, then Prime Minister Bruce Golding indicated he had concerns about the financial strain it was putting on the NHT.