Indigent Houses handed over in Trelawny
FALMOUTH, Trelawny:
Two indigent houses, built under the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development’s Municipal Social Assistance Programme (MSAP) , have been handed over in the parish of Trelawny.
The recipients are Miss Beverley Grant of Penn Road in Stettin and Vernice and Lloyd Dell of Martha Brae.
“We targeted to build 25 of these units across the country when I made the announcement in my sectoral presentation in 2017,” said Portfolio Minister, Honourable Desmond McKenzie, said during the first handover in the community of Stettin on January 29.
“We are well past the 25, and by the end of this financial year, we would have built some 35 of these houses right across Jamaica to aid and to support the cause of those who rely on the State.”
The Minister also announced that two water tanks will also be provided to the Trelawny beneficiaries for rainwater harvesting.
The indigent houses under the MSAP feature a studio design of approximately 200 square-foot and each built at a cost of $1.8 million. The dwellings are furnished with a bed, refrigerator, stove, a dining table and other household items. To date, units have been built in Clarendon, St. Ann, St. Catherine, Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Thomas and Portland.
Mrs. Dell shared that the new house will significantly improve the standard of her living conditions as well as her husband, who is visually challenged. “Thank you very much. On behalf of the Dell family, I appreciate it so much. I can’t even find words… but from the depth of my heart, thank you,” she said.
According to Minister McKenzie, the Government is committed to the protection of the country’s most vulnerable. He shared that the administration has spent more than J$1 billion in the 2019/2020 fiscal year on social assistance programmes.
The Local Government and Community Development Minister also underscored that the nation is also gauged by the treatment meted out to the poor and needy.
He further stated that the housing assistance under the MSAP, is an avenue for the State to support those who made substantial contribution to nation building and have fallen on hard times.
