‘Greatest gift I’ve ever received’
St Bess woman overjoyed at receiving social housing unit
Published:Thursday | August 4, 2022 | 12:05 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
DIGNITY HAS returned to the household of 63-year-old Meakrose Robinson, a farmer of Berlin community in St Elizabeth, who became the latest recipient of a new home under the Government’s New Social Housing Programme.
Empowered with the keys to her own home, Robinson said she will now move out of her old one-bedroom dwelling that is made of concrete and wood.
She said her new three-bedroom home will be shared with her only daughter and three grandchildren.
“Oh God, I will be able to sleep better and move around better,” said Robinson in an interview with The Gleaner, after receiving the keys to her home from Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday during a tour of the parish.
She noted that her life, and that of her daughter and grandchildren, was very uncomfortable for the better part of the last 10 years, especially as she has a medical condition that the proceeds from her little farming activities are unable to cover.
“When you live in a one-room house, you bounce up on each other; and how you want to lay down for a moment’s rest, you can’t do it because of the space,” she explained.
“This is the greatest gift that I have ever received and it comes at a good time, ahead of our country’s Independence,” Robinson noted.
“Life in Jamaica, I am feeling very independent right now,” she exclaimed. “It’s really a wonderful thing that we have moved out of slavery as a country; and I am now emancipated from a life of frustration, for which I want to thank the prime minister and the people of Jamaica.”
Holness said his ministry and administration’s selection of beneficiaries is a robust one that is above scrutiny.
“No one can say that the person receiving the house is not deserving of the benefit. The process by which the selection is done is one that is very robust in terms of the social investigation that is done,” said Holness, before cutting the ribbon and formally handing three new houses under the New Social Housing Programme, constructed at just under $5.8 million.
The prime minister said the house is constructed at the highest standards, and that there can be no criticism.
“No complaints of any inefficiency, any form of misallocation or any form of maladministration misadventures with funds that were used,” he assured. “It is a very well-run programme and I am happy to be associated with it.”
Holness, who has ministerial responsibility for the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, said building and handing over social houses to those in need of a place to call home, and to properly raise their family, give him unspeakable joy.