Bartlett eyes transforming dead capital for residents on captured lands
Published:Thursday | February 17, 2022 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
EDMUND BARTLETT, member of parliament for St James East Central, has promised to help residents of Barrett Town who are living on captured Crown lands to transform their homes and commercial operations into wealth.
Bartlett said the absence of land titles has left several residents clutching on to “dead assets” valued at millions, though he did not give an exact figure.
“Barrett Town has millions of Jamaica dollars of dead assets – these wonderful houses that you have, these beautiful facilities that you have created on lands that don’t bear your names,” Bartlett said at the handover of the newly rehabilitated Barrett Town Health Centre in his constituency last Friday.
VEXED REALITY
The health centre was rehabilitated under the Poverty Reduction Programme and implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) at a cost of $43.8 million. through grant funding from the European Union.
“You’re not really owners because you don’t have any legal representation,” Bartlett noted. “So your ability to convert that dead capital into wealth is almost zero.”
He said that because of the situation, the residents are often faced with the vexed reality that they are not able to properly transfer these assets to their children.
“You can’t go to the bank and borrow against the asset. You can’t leverage that asset that you spent so much money on over time, in order to improve your own position, to educate your children, to send them to university, or even to buy additional assets that you want,” the member of parliament reasoned.
Bartlett further argued that the most important part of every community’s quest is the comfort of tenure by way of land titles, noting that he would be pushing to advance the process so they can feel that sense of belonging.
That sense of ownership, Bartlett stated, is important and will serve both as a motivation and empowerment, with the ability to be able to transfer their assets to somebody else, including their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Clinton Bernard, president of the Barrett Town Community Development Committee (CDC), said the matter of lack of titles for captured land was of concern. However, he noted that it was an immediate priority, given the number of things needed to build out the community.
“We had not yet taken on that role, in terms of sorting out the land titles. It was not an area we were heavily focusing on,” Bernard told The Gleaner.
“We were dealing with the zinc-fence removal, the renovation of the health clinic and having water in the community,” he added.
Bernard said, now that Bartlett has raised the matter as a major impediment, he will take it to the next meeting of the CDC, a recognised committee of the Social Development Commission, which includes all other community groups.