Gareth Manning, Staff Reporter

Prime Minister Bruce Golding's announcement that $1 billion from the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) is to be used to effect infrastructural improvements in some squatter settlements in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios is welcome news, albeit long overdue.

The prime minister should be congratulated, not simply because of the political maturity his acknowledgement and acceptance of the pro-posal from the Opposition showed, but because it demonstrated that the Government has finally caught a whiff of the long-burning tree trunks and is coming to realise the danger these growing informal settlements pose.

It's unfortunate that it took the 'shocking' revelation by the Minister of Water and Housing, Dr Horace Chang, that about one-third of the population is squatting to awaken the Government. That the number of squatters is now closer to one million should surprise no one.

The last survey five years ago showed that the number of settlements numbered nearly 600, with the population of squatters estimated at 400,000. That survey, carried out by the Urban and Regional Planning Division at the University of Technology at the time, was not a comprehensive analysis of the informal settlements and therefore would not have captured the actual number of communities and their population. It is, however, guesstimated that the real numbers could likely be up to 30 per cent of the island.

And the number of squatters is likely to grow as these communities have all the necessary conditions to nurture the growth of their population. They represent the poorest quintile on the island and are therefore likely to have the highest birth rates. They have the least access to and understanding about issues pertaining to family planning and reproductive health, and therefore tend to have more children than they can care for.

They exhibit all three dimensions of poverty as set out by the World Bank social researcher, Dr Jimmy Tindigarukayo: "Squatters lack financial and material assets; they lack the capacity to fight for their own rights and are therefore often abused by others and the State. Being so poor, squatters are more prone to illnesses than any other group. They are are also prone to violence and the severe impact of natural disasters. They are the poorest of the poor."

Jamaica's politics has also helped to complicate the problem and contributed to the growth of the squatter problem over the decades. In the past, there have been instances where politicians have fostered the creation of these communities in an attempt to win elections. Today, nearly all squatter settlements are solidly in the camp of either of the two main political parties - the Jamaica Labour Party and the People's National Party.

Humanise Jamaicans

The question then remains: Why millions of dollars being used from the TEF to spruce up resort areas under the popular campaign by Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett were not being spent earlier "to humanise" thousands of Jamaicans in the squatter settlements that rim the main north coast resort towns?

These settlements are the homes of many of the people who work in these resort facilities, and hotels, yet little has been done to improve their living conditions. Many continue to live without proper amenities such as potable water, electricity and basic social development facilities, such as community centres and proper roads.

The continued growth of these communities has been the bane of some resort areas, as many have co-existed beside some of the finest attractions and hotels, driving down the general aesthetic of the areas.

But most important is their contribution to the nation's number one problem - crime - especially in growing urban townships where murders and gunmanship have been growing exponentially.

Police have consistently maintained that they have been the source and contributors to about 70 to 80 per cent of major crimes,particularly in parishes where these communities have been growing the fastest. The former superintendent of the Clarendon police, Derrick Knight, placed the contribution of squatter communities to major crimes at 75 per cent. In St James, the police claimed that residents from squatter settlements accounted for 70 per cent of the crimes committed in the parish.

Montego Bay growing

Montego Bay, the tourism capital, has been growing rapidly but the growth of its residential dwellings has not been commensurate with that development. This has led to the spread of squatting, as droves of people, lured by the promise of opportunities in the hotel sector, continue to make the trek towards these communities.

There are now not enough jobs to accommodate the very rapid growing population in resort areas like Montego Bay, or the type of remuneration to suit the many youngsters, particularly young men, who have grown intolerant of the meagre wages being offered to them in the hospitality sector.

Evidence of that intolerance was recently brought to the fore by Kirk Patrick Campbell, the president of the Hanover Youth Council, at a Gleaner Editors' Forum in Montego Bay on the problem of youth unemployment in the parishes of Hanover and St James. He told the forum that many young men, in particular, had lost interest in the hospitality sector because of the general treatment meted out to workers as well as the small salaries.

Get-rich-quick trades

One spin-off of this attitude has been the growth of illicit get-rich-quick trades, such as the popular lottery scams that have been a source of fuel to the violence within the communities, as people jostle for a share of the ill-gotten gains.

Crime has been hard to manage not only because the lottery scam itself has spun out of control into a complicated web that has strands across borders, but also because the communities themselves have been almost impenetrable.

There are 21 informal settlements, most of which are concentrated in the Montego Bay area, and deputy superintendent in charge of crime, Maurice Robinson, says they are all hard to reach because of the lack of proper infrastructure. They all suffer from poor roads - a condition which makes it obviously hard for the communities to be policed more effectively.

The superintendent now in charge of Clarendon, Dathan Henry, who, before being stationed at the Clarendon headquarters, was a community policing officer and project manager, suggested at an Editors' Forum that community policing was simply not workable in informal settlements.

Community policing

"Community policing has to be offered in planned communities, not unplanned communities," he said. "We play and toy with the term 'community policing' but the men and criminals operating in these unplanned communities are extremely dangerous. When they are walking in these communities that have zinc fences and lanes and you have criminal elements there with high-powered weapons, certainly, that is not an area or a condition that I would want to expose my community-policing officers to."

This offers little hope for the Jamaica Constabulary Force's ongoing community policing initiatives.

One of the suggestions planners have been making for some time now to help discourage the growth of squatter settlements is simply to revive the rental market, especially in resort areas to which people continue to migrate in search of better opportunities. Incentives have to be offered to builders and existing homeowners to offer properties at lower than current market rates to help those who cannot afford to buy houses. Many workers in the tourism sector fall within this category. Properties are being rented for between US$1,500 and US$2,500 per month.

The Government has signalled its intention through the revamped National Housing Development Corporation (now Housing Agency of Jamaica) Operation PRIDE initiative, which still has about 94 squatter and greenfield housing developments under its belt. The projects it will be dealing with, however, are but a minuscule percentage of the squatter communities that need urgent attention.

Funds such as CHASE and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund have also been helpful, but it is clear that more is needed from the private sector if the situation is to be brought under some control. It is true that the private sector often shows little interest in these ventures because there is little profit to be made, but ways have to be found to encourage and influence them.

Mark Kerr-Jarrett, the prominent St James real estate developer and chairman of the Parish evelopment Committee, has suggested that the Government may need to consider giving some tax breaks if it wants private developers and businesses to invest more in these communities.

Where businesses and charities are already willing to contribute, some regulation might also need to be applied to ensure communities which are most needy receive the highest priority.

Improving lives

Improving the lives of their residents and the environment of squatter settlements is an imperative, and it is good that the Government has carefully considered and has chosen to use funds from the TEF to help address the plight of some communities on the north coast. It, however, now needs to address the problems on the south coast - particularly in Clarendon and St Catherine - by using creative measures to uplift the communities, as well make them amenable to the implementation of police/community projects. Both must be pursued simultaneously.

Reducing squatter settlements will obviously play an important part in gaining control of garrison-type politics and reducing the crime problem. All the more reason for the Government to treat the situation with greater urgency.

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