Fitz-Henley says NHT spending targets post-Melissa housing recovery

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Senator Abka Fitz-Henley, state minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, says the Government has channelled billions of dollars from the National Housing Trust into shelter support as housing pressures across Jamaica grew sharper after Hurricane Melissa.

He made the statement on Friday during debate in the Senate on legislation to extend the Government’s drawdown from the NHT for budget support, an arrangement that began in 2013.

Fitz-Henley said that, since Hurricane Melissa passed last October, the NHT has paid out $1.9 billion in home grants to 5,078 households, with the assistance amounting to roughly $500,000 per household.

He also told Parliament that the Trust granted six-month mortgage moratoriums, temporarily suspending payments on 36,000 mortgages in areas hit by the storm. Peril insurance premiums were also waived, he said.

According to Fitz-Henley, 213 special roof loans have been issued with a value of $6.6 million. He added that the NHT has handled 3,835 insurance claims worth $7 billion, with $2.8 billion already paid under a staged process.

The state minister further reported that the Trust has purchased 2,500 semi-permanent modular housing units at a total cost of $4.6 billion. He said 300 of those units reached Jamaica on Friday, while another 1,000 are expected by July.

Fitz-Henley also pointed to the $10-billion ROOFS programme, which he said was created specifically to address the needs of Jamaicans whose homes suffered major damage from Hurricane Melissa.

His comments came as he rejected Opposition criticism that the Administration had been slow to use NHT resources to address shelter needs islandwide.

On housing, Fitz-Henley said the Government’s approach is one of humility, with a continuing aim to invest more and deliver stronger results for Jamaicans. However, he said claims that the current Administration has spent too little on housing, or performed worse than the Government it replaced, are false.

He told the Senate that from 2016 to 2025, the Government started 31,540 housing units through the NHT.

Fitz-Henley said that works out to 1,194 more housing starts per year than under the People’s National Party Administration before 2016, representing a 57 per cent rise in annual starts under Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Since 2016, he said, the Administration has completed 21,166 housing units and issued 67,249 mortgages. He argued that those figures are well above the completions recorded by the PNP during its previous two terms.

Fitz-Henley also said there were fiscal years in which the Government doubled the highest level of NHT housing expenditure recorded by the former PNP Administration during its last term, which began in 2012 and reached $28 billion.