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Ministry of
Economic Growth
& Job Creation

Media

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025

Government moving to scale up the delivery of homes under the NSHP

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government is targeting a significant increase in the delivery of homes under the New Social Housing Programme(NSHP).

“This programme is delivering on a monthly basis, at least ten or more homes for needy families and what we are trying to do now is scale up the delivery of homes. We want to be delivering in the region of between 20 and 40 homes per month”, the Prime Minister stated.

Speaking yesterday (July 16, 2025) at the Contract Signing and Groundbreaking for the Wakefield Mews Housing Development in St Catherine, Prime Minister Holness said this target can be achieved.

“It can be done, because if you need to deal with 6000 families then you really have to ramp up the delivery of the houses” he stated.

The Prime Minister reiterated that one of the main obstacles for the delivery of the units under the NSHP is the provision of land.

“This programme does not provide land. The beneficiary has to get access to land and then come to us, and then we build on the land. So, we are now looking as our Permanent Secretary has said, to identify lands that we can put social housing on. We don’t want to become a housing developer and to be competing with the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) and the NHT (National Housing Trust), so we will look at it very carefully”, he stated.

The Wakefield Mews Housing Development, formerly called Backlands in the Buxton Town Area of St. Catherine is being developed under Modality 3 of the NSHP, which is the Upgrade of Tenements/Big Yards.

The development, which is being constructed at a cost of $44.2 million, will comprise three 2-bedroom and three 3-bedroom units as well as the necessary infrastructure works, and is expected to commence this month (July) with completion expected by January 2026.

Twenty-four (24) persons, including 14 children, who were living in substandard conditions, are expected to benefit from this project.