The launch of Mutual Housing Services Limited marks a crucial step toward addressing Jamaica's social challenges through proper housing. Minister of Housing, the Hon Wilton Hill, emphasised that malnutrition, disease, and crime are often rooted in slum conditions. By providing affordable, well-managed housing, the company aims to eradicate these issues.

Published Friday, October 4, 1968

Non-profit making company to promote, develop co-op housing launched

Mutual Housing Services Limited, a non-profit, non-governmental company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital, was officially launched by the Minister of Housing, the Hon Wilton Hill, yesterday afternoon.

The company is to encourage the organisation and operation of housing cooperatives, and will promote, develop, and assist co-operative housing projects of all kinds in all parts of the country.

In launching the company, Hill said he was “deeply interested in any exercise and any organisation that is to provide housing for really low-income sectors of the Jamaican society, because slums are a scourge on the face of the nation”.

Malnutrition, disease and crime could not be disassociated from slums. Hill said, and “if we can clear away the slums and create better living conditions, we will have done more by that means in obliterating crime in this city and this nation than by any other means that can be adopted.”

Hill said he was happy about the formation of the company because the co-operative movement could not succeed without management by people of a certain intellectual level.

Great faith

The minister said he could not overemphasise that he had great faith in the work that the company would do. It would “play no small part in the achievement of my aims and ambitions”, he said.

He thanked the United States Agency for International Development for allocating $6 million for housing in Jamaica.

The proceedings, which took place in the housing ministry’s conference room, opened with a brief history of co-operative housing in Jamaica by Paul Thompson, chairman of the Co-operative Housing Advisory Committee of the ministry, who has been named chairman of the new company.

He told of the first attempts in 1951 by two groups which were mainly directed at the purchase and subdivision of land, and of another group formed in 1961. Two of these failed, he said. Then came 1963 and the first group to successfully provide land and houses for its members.

The second phase started with a ministry tour of co-operative housing schemes in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Columbia and Venezuela, after which the help of US/AID was enlisted and their consultants. Messrs Foundation for Co-operative Housing Services, Inc came to Jamaica in 1964 to do a feasibility study.

The advisory committee was the result of the finding of that study. It had on it representatives of four government departments, two statutory bodies, the Building Societies Association of Jamaica, a private developer, and the director of St George’s College Extension School’s Social Action Centre.

Major areas

As the committee could act only in an advisory capacity, Thompson said, it could do nothing practical to expedite proposals; could not acquire and hold land, enter into contracts, or receive and disburse funds. It was to do these things that the Mutual Housing Services Limited was set up on similar lines to those of the Foundation for Co-operative Housing Services Inc. in the United States, he said.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Housing, Whitsun McDonald, congratulated the chairman and members of the new company “on the attainment of a landmark in the history of housing in Jamaica”. He mentioned the major areas of housing assistance covered by the ministry and in which the ministry would continue to assist. He wished the new company “abundant success”.

A representative of the Foundation for Co-operative Housing Services, Inc, Washington, DC, Dr Mario Pita, came to Jamaica to attend the launch of the new company. He said the establishment of the company was “proof that the difficult task of providing assistance to countries struggling to achieve better living conditions can be solved by the creation of institutions that will play an important role in the field of social and financial development”.

He related briefly the growth of the foundation, which has worked in close collaboration with Jamaica since 1964. In his opinion, he said, “the creation of Mutual Housing Services with the sponsorship of the Government of Jamaica and the participation of the private sector reflects a clear understanding of what is needed for the implementation of a countrywide co-operative housing programme.”

The Rev Fr G. McLaughlin, SJ, described by Thompson, who presided at the launch, as “the champion of forward-thinking in the co-operative housing movement in Jamaica”, moved the vote of thanks. He emphasised that co-operative housing projects must be non-profit, providing housing as cheaply as possible for as many people as possible, and that, with continuous property management, no such project could ever be a slum.

‘Debt of gratitude’

Fr McLaughlin thanked all the individuals, groups and organisations which have fostered the co-operative housing movement, particularly the late Hon.Clement Tavares, former minister of housing. “We owe him a debt of gratitude even though he is no longer with us,” he said.

Jack Sparks, chief engineer of the US/AID Mission in Jamaica, said the majority of applications for assistance from the 6-million allocation would have co-oрегаtive housing built into them.

Yesterday’s ceremony was attended by members of the Co-operative Housing Advisory Committee, ministry officials, and representatives of various groups.

Members of the new company also attending were Selvin Lee, solicitor of Judah, Desnoes and Company, and Stanley Moore, of the Cement Company.

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