'Provide housing to empower women'

Barrington Flemming, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Head of the School of Public Health and Health Technology at the University of Technology (UTech) Dr Winston Davidson is charging the Government to immediately address the chronic shortage of housing stock to tackle the illicit act of squatting.

"The time has come for a massive housing programme to deal with the system of squatting; with low-income housing to give women a feeling of not only empowerment but of settlement - a piece of property and a home to raise their children."

Speaking at a People's National Party (PNP) Women's Movement Forum held in honour of International Women's Day at the University of the West Indies Western Jamaica Campus on Saturday, Davidson said while women were moving ahead in academia, most of the inner-city squatter communities across the country were headed by women.

women squatters

"If you look at these squatter settlements, you will find that the majority of them, or more than 90 per cent, are headed by women," said Davidson.

Davidson said Jamaica has 700 squatter communities and this is a legacy of slavery that the country has not been able to properly deal with, creating serious public health and social concerns for the country.

"From a public health standpoint, when I look at the inner-city squatter settlements that I have been working in the for the past 40 years, I see in those settlements higher incidence of teenage pregnancy, higher incidence of children born without any father, higher incidence of chronic disease, high incidence of HIV, crime, etc," Davidson said.

He indicated that women were the backbone of these communities, raising children in these less than ideal conditions.

Davidson said successive governments had failed to keep apace with the need for low-income housing, resulting in people having to resort to squatting.

"When you look back over the past 35 years, see the housing settlements, see that Government is not keeping pace with the demand for housing, without a house no well thinking person will get married and raise a family."