The National Housing Trust (NHT) was established in 1976 so homeownership could be facilitated by it as a public mortgage body building homes and subsidising loans for purchasing. The NHT ‘Strategic Mandate Review Commission Report’ (November 2017) identified only two sites, Belair in St Ann (140 units and 116 service lots), and Providence Heights in St James (320 units and 54 service lots) as planned developments to facilitate removal of squatters from nearby communities. However, its planned temporary relocation of squatters to facilitate these were delayed because citizens in communities adjacent to those earmarked lands objected strongly. Have the dislocated poor squatters become final recipients of the Belair and Providence Heights developments?
UWI-Caribbean Policy Research Institute, states NHT taxes poor and rich alike, but “the NHT does not benefit its neediest contributors”, The 2021 NHT Ruthven Towers development has come under public questions about affordability by contributors.