Innswood residents face relocation as Heartlands moves to develop former SCJ land

A long-running land dispute has left a pocket of Innswood, St. Catherine, tense as developers prepare to break ground while households that have lived on the site without formal title say they have no alternative place to stay.

Occupants who settled on land previously owned by SCJ Holdings grew anxious after learning they would have to move. Heartlands Holdings Investments Limited bought the property in 2018; roughly eight years on, work is set to begin on part of the site, but residents insist they cannot simply leave.

One family watched the situation unfold with growing worry about where they would live next. "We not understand because they're not standing up for us," a resident said. "And we there are right now we don't know what's taking place. So we are calling upon the higher authority with us taking a look into this matter and make sure we can go forward."

Others accused those handling the move of using heavy-handed tactics. "They're not reacting in the right way," another resident said. "They're using brute force to try to push us off the land and at the end of the day, all of us who is here is a part of the sugarcane family. If our sugarcane ram relocation or a regular relocation, we entitled to get some somewhere. But they must in a right. Where my little young daughter going to live? When they push me off the land, where my little baby going to live?"

TVJ News reviewed a release and discharge document dated 16 March 2026 that residents were asked to sign. Some declined. Signatories acknowledged informal occupation and agreed to leave within 14 days of signing; the document also pointed to alternative housing for those who complied. People still on the land, however, questioned how the process was run. "Each time when them come and when them clear say them get paper for who sign," one resident said, "them come with two little piece of paper and them not come to say right, this a Harry, this a Tom. You see me, them come with just one list."

Law firm Vassellian and Wittingham, acting for the developers, said it was not clear what new basis had emerged for complaints about relocation arrangements. Counsel stated that Heartlands built 12 housing units plus supporting infrastructure—including road access, water, and electricity—on land identified by SCJ Holdings Limited for people chosen through SCJ's relocation process. Heartlands, the firm added, did not decide who would benefit or which plots they would receive. With several families still on site and others already moved, how the standoff will be resolved in the coming days remains unsettled.