Cunningham
Jamaican housing is stratified. Uptown erects gated communities while downtown erects settlements at the gates. Some settlers provide valuable services to the gated, while others, marginalised by lack of skills and, motivated by a "we-are-poor-because-you-are-rich" perception, seek to destroy the gate and the gated.
Some of the gated communities display genuine concern for the settlers and so initiate Peace Management Initiatives and other interventions, while others don't care. Both gated and settlers are trapped, ultimate fighters, locked at the wrist in a death duel. The trap is called underdevelopment. Its most visible members are donmanship in the settlements and private security behind the gates, disfigured progeny of corrupt ancestry.
But suppose we create a different vision, where there is no fundamental distinction between settlement or gated, where both share basic facilities and amenities of identical standard, so that scandal bag waste disposal no longer coexists with "Bed, Bath & Beyond", where potable water is commonly available, and when it rains there is no fear of drowning or land slippage, because the site is on rocky ground, not a riverbed, nor is it in a flood prone depression, and where no gated visitor to a settlement ever has to cry real tears because he never believed that fellow Jamaicans could live in such squalor.
Publicised development
A view of the upscale community of Mango Walk (left) and the squatter settlement of Shanty Town, Montego Bay, just across the road, which is devaluing properties, in Mango Walk, and is causing grave concerns by many persons. - File
A little-publicised development in Old Harbour, called Old Harbour Glades, to mark its evolution from the bad lands of Succaba Settlement, has boldly achieved much of that vision and, remarkably, it has done so with solutions which have resulted in the Government being fully repaid for its input of land and services and with no significant overruns, so the escalation clause in nearly 2000 purchase contracts in seven phases; A1, A2, B, C, D, E, E1 averaging 250 lots each, has never been used. How did this come about? First, there was a master plan which included well-designed drains, high-quality central sewage treatment (tertiary level, meaning the effluent is clean water) and abundance of potable water from a dedicated well.
Then, to counter the negative connotations of the squatter settlement and its strong correlation with crime and disorder, regular plots with full access to services were allocated to the poor and to the squatters. After that, the next mission was to make the serviced plots affordable, through creative finance. In this case, it comprised a system of low-interest, internationally sourced loans and the development of cross-subsidies which assisted everyone with low to moderate incomes to afford the serviced lots. Finally, open-market purchasers of all income levels were invited to buy into the development whose sectors were so spaced that successive areas were priced closer and closer to full market levels.
Social stratification
But, would they come? After all, social stratification is natural and Jamaicans don't like to mix! WRONG! They came in droves; teachers, nurses, civil servants, members of the security forces, doctors, accountants, businessmen and returning residents as well as artisans, in response to national advertisement and were selected without a single reference to politics or religion. They came, they bought, they built.
And, they taught us lessons. They extracted unbelievable construction value from their NHT and building society loans. Second, their construction, for a decade, became a mainstay of the Old Harbour economy. They also provided continuous employment to many erstwhile squatters who viewed the newcomers as essential to their own well-being. And, there were further lessons. Some built cleverly appointed rental units on top of the units they occupied. Others built inter-generational units occupied by mom dad, adult children, visiting friends and relatives, giving security for the kids, flexibility for the parents. Planners can take a cue, since not everyone needs to own 100 per cent of every dwelling.
But the greatest lesson from the transformation is that poverty is a temporary state, transition from which depends upon ability and opportunity. With beautiful views and good services, possession of registered titles in this community is gold, even if the roads show need of repair. So the inhabitants are not pre-occupied with conflict at the gates, but how to seize the day, transforming passive home equity into dynamic industrial wealth. Their opportunity is to unlock Hernando de Soto's Mystery of Capital.
Some keys
Here are a few keys. Take Keith, aged 23, son of an allottee. He attended Old Harbour Primary and Old Harbour High and graduated with A' Level physics, mathematics and chemistry, but is earning a living as a welder in the community because he is a responsible father and partner.
If taught to liquidate a part of his family's dormant capital for productive purposes, he can expand his welding and realise his ambition to become an engineer. What of those not academically gifted? They too have gifts.
Take John, an urban subsistence goat farmer. He has heard about Boer bucks which reach a weight of 50kg in nine months and, when butchered, clean meat is sold for $580/kg. But he does not know of the husbandry needed to get those results, although Bodles, the mecca of such information, is less than two miles away; nor does he know that nearby Bog Walk is the principal source of citrus pulp which, mixed with molasses and complemented by easily grown protein-rich leucaena are the keys to getting such results. So, despite his wealth, he subsists. The same thing applies to Nancy, who could leverage her wealth, register with NCU, become a state registered nurse and earn big, money in the USA or Europe, while adding to remittances which are the mainstay of the Jamaican economy. Instead, she was last seen in front of her substantial house waiting for a hand-out of a gas burner from Food for the Poor.
Such are the possibilities when ordinary people acquire capital, cease to think poor, are not diverted by the daily excesses of shottas in their communities and are not depressed by the inconvenience posed by the absence of basic services. With imagination, poverty can indeed be a temporary, not a permanent or natural state. The Old Harbour Glades project, which has provided such a glimpse into the future, is a joint venture of the Building Societies Development Limited and the GOJ (MOWH and NHDC), financed by private sector (HG012) funds from USAID. The project was conceived by Carlton Cunningham & Associates and managed by them.
A new phase of the project is being planned. Perhaps, it is worth emulation.
Names in article are pseudonyms
Carlton Cunningham is a former managing director of SIHL and is currently a developer of Affordable Housing. Feedback may be sent to carltoncunningham@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.