EDITOR’S NOTE: Near the middle of March, #InfrastruCaribe featured housing as we began a series on social infrastructure in the Caribbean in our edition 2021-03-19. This newsletter does the same. Four countries are covered, namely Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Jamaica. Two of the five articles are on jamaica, and one apiece for the others.
Our headline, taken from the Dominican Today, reads: “Dominican Government Launches Plan To Build 62,000 Homes In 4 Years”. The project will be implemented as a public-private partnership with an initial government investment of $32M increasing to a total investment of $200M by the end of construction. It is expected to directly benefit 310,000 people.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Government has signed 200 contracts valued at US$70M, in a single day, to construct 50,000 housing solutions. In Trinidad and Tobago, their Housing Development Corporation expects to build over 2,000 housing solutios this year under the government’s Accelerated Housing Programme.
In Jamaica, the Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change — Pearnel Charles Jr, — wants more climate-resilient housing solutions to be built. However, their parliamentary opposition is calling on them to rethink their proposed use of 148 acres of prime agricultural lands to build 800 houses.