Housing Minister Karl Blythe displays one of the quit notices that will be served to squatters in the Ocho Rios area in the next few days. At a press conference at the Ministry's New Kingston offices yesterday, he revealed plans to relocate squatters in Maamee Bay, Parry Town, Spring Piece, Pimento Walk and Windsor areas of St Ann. SQUATTERS IN Parry Town, Spring Piece, Pimento Walk, Windsor and Mammee Bay areas of St Ann are to be evicted, the Ministry of Water and Housing, warned yesterday, if they fail to comply with quit notices.
Housing Minister Karl Blythe told a press conference at his ministry that the squatters, especially those on lands owned by the Ministry, would be evicted and their dwellings demolished as government attempts to restore St. Ann to its "garden parish" state.
"Squatting must come to an end. It's time for me to put the brakes on this kind of development, even though painful, even though there may be some resistance, they will have to be relocated," he said.
Squatting has over the years been "a serious problem" in North East St Ann, spanning Seville to Ocho Rios, where they represent a huge portion of the estimated several hundred thousand squatters in Jamaica.
According to the Minister the squatting has had a negative effect on the tourism sector which provides for the employment of over 30,000 people in the parish and is also the largest foreign exchange earner for the country with some US$1.3 billion.
He referred to an almost uncontrollable expansion of squatting in the Ocho Rios area, with its attendant problems of harassment, crime, environmental problems with inadequate waste disposal and diseases. He said that if the problem was not addressed it could have a negative impact on tourism.
The Minister said over the next 18 months the Ministry would seek to develop the Ocho Rios area, relocate some settlements, upgrade existing ones and clear areas for development many of which are illegally occupied.
Programmes under Operation Pride, Joint Ventures, Emancipation Lands and NHT development solutions will be effected.
He said that lands had been identified in Beecher Town and Shaw Park where the combined lands surpassed several hundred acres of land that could be used for commercial, greenfield, social and infrastructural development. Preliminary designs have already been completed in Shaw Park.
Meanwhile the affected families will be given the opportunity to acquire the lands legally and have secure tenure for residential and farming purposes. The cost, the Minister said, would be devised according to the beneficiary's ability to pay.
The Minister in closing said that lands and shelter were being made in "numbers unprecedented in Jamaica's history".
"There is no need for any family in Jamaica to turn to squatting as a solution. Those with genuine needs will be provided the opportunity as the case may be," he added.
