HOPE to the rescue - St Mary family delivered from shabby old house

For more than 20 years, Dawnette Henry lived in a one-bedroom shack with leaking roof at Pembroke Hall in Gayle, St Mary.

"Rain wet me up pon the bed. Sometimes we don't sleep because we have to stay up and tie up sheets just not to get wet, but everything would still wet up, and it was one bed," the 54-year-old woman told THE STAR last Friday.

"My children would sleep on the bed and I would sit up on the couch we had. We had to put buckets and pans to catch the rainwater inside the house. It was uncomfortable for five of us inside the home," she added.

However, her situation changed for the better last Tuesday after being given the keys to a three-bedroom house, which was constructed under the new Social Housing Programme at a cost of $6.2 million. Although it is not yet furnished, Henry is still thankful for having a comfortable home.

The 54-year-old shared that she works as a domestic helper and a farmer, but she was not earning enough to allow her to build a new house. In addition, her husband's medical expenses have taken a great toll on the family, which would have made it impossible to construct a house.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, Doreen Hutchinson, councillor for the Carron Hall division drew attention to photos of the old house in which Henry lived, and said she really needed assistance.

"I want to say many, many thanks to all who have helped. Miss Henry, I hope you will, as you live in it, that you will ask God's guidance in it, that you will take care of your new home. I know that it is well-deserved," she said.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, addressing the same ceremony, said that the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme, under which the social houses are being constructed, is mandated to provide 70,000 new housing solutions for needy Jamaicans in the next five years.

"I come to you today with a vision of a government, of a people, of a country that is sensitive and understanding of the need for good shelter solutions, good housing solutions for every single Jamaican, regardless of your social and economic standing," Holness said.

He said that HOPE will create enough housing solutions so that people will not need to squat anymore.

"The idea of squatting has become almost normalised in Jamaica, and as prime minster I understand why, because of our history of unequal endowments. Some people have land that they can endow to their family members, and some of us never get land. In rural areas, you have family land that is not properly structured, not properly titled, and the truth is that as a family grows and they split up, they have to move. They see land there, they see land here, man gone a foreign and nuh look back on it; well, they just move over on it, and that is cultural almost in our society, but we can't build a society with lack of respect for property rights," he said.