Editorial | The fix for squatting

Coming so quickly after the Coopers Pen incident, last week’s vow by long-term occupiers of the Jacob Taylor Beach in Trelawny to resist their planned eviction by a state agency should concentrate the minds of the Jamaican authorities on the need for accelerated action to address the island’s deep-seated problem of land ownership and squatting.

As this newspaper and others have argued, this crisis is so emotive and complex that its solution is unlikely to be solely in the gift of any administration, no matter the potential efficacy of its solution. For this issue is also political. It requires cross-party consensus if proposed fixes are to be insulated against partisan campaigns and not derailed.

That is why The Gleaner’s Editorial Board again proposes the reconvening of the long-stalled Vale Royal talks between the Government and the political Opposition, at which the squatting/land question is near the top of the agenda. As a corollary to this, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness should forthrightly confirm his administration’s intention of a seamless renewal of the agreement with the Opposition, the private sector, the labour movement and civil society groups on the National Partnership Council (NPC) when the current pact expires in mid-September.

However, merely having the agreement in place is not sufficient. Unlike the state of suspended animation in which the NPC has existed for much of the past year, it must actually meet and engage in its intended purpose as a forum for the airing of national policy goals, especially those that might prove socially and politically problematic.

Regarding developments at the Jacob Taylor Beach at Silver Sands, Trelawny, it was reported that small business owners who have operated there for over three decades have been told by the National Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) to allow the property to be “repaired and improved” for use “for a public purpose”. Fishers, some of whom have used the beach for more than 40 years, fear that they will be next.

PREPARING FOR A FIGHT

The NRCA apparently owns the land. Generally, the occupiers are preparing for a fight.

“My next move is not to leave,” Walter Spence, a 75-year-old craft sculptor, who said he has operated a shop on the beach for 34 years, told the Jamaica Observer newspaper. “I’m going to fight it!”

A fortnight ago, at Coopers Pen, also in Trelawny, more than 20 homes on privately owned land were demolished in an early-morning operation. Squatters have reportedly occupied a portion of the sprawling Coopers Pen property since the 1960s. In the 2000s, the owners won a court order to remove 99 people from the property and also judicially resisted a 2012 effort by then Housing Minister Omar Davies to acquire nine acres of the property for the community.

Coopers Pen and Jacob Taylor Beach are not isolated issues. While the specifics of the cases may differ, the general theme is replicated across Jamaica. Indeed, in 2009, Horace Chang, who was then the minister for housing and water, told Parliament that between 750,000 and 900,000 Jamaicans lived in squatter or irregularly settled communities. Current government estimates are that Jamaica has a deficit of 150,000 homes, although it is not clear if this represents effective demand, that is, people who can actually afford homes at current market prices. If it does not, the shelter deficit is likely to be even higher, given that many people don’t fall within the income brackets to drive effective demand for homes.

This crisis is one of the residual effects of Jamaica’s history of slavery, which, 192 years after its abolition and 64 years after Independence, the country has not been able to solve. Former enslaved people left sugar plantations without ownership of property. If they settled on unoccupied land, they generally didn’t acquire titles. The growth of urban communities and rural-urban migration over the last six decades has exacerbated the problem. So, too, has the rapid expansion of tourism. Once-marginal lands near beaches have rocketed in value. Additionally, irregular communities have developed close to hotels as people moved nearer to where they work.

POCKETS OF VOTES

Further, informal communities represent pockets of votes, often making politicians resistant to the dismantling of these settlements, lest they feel the impact at the ballot box.

These complexities notwithstanding, there have been many attempts over several decades to address the problem. There have been some gains. However, the scale and depth of the problem, the associated politics, the cost of transformation, and the inadequacy of the State’s technical capacity to address the matter have inevitably slowed progress.

This newspaper agrees with Prime Minister Holness that the “squatter culture” hurts Jamaica. It is also true, as he said with respect to Coopers Pen, that, in responding to the humanitarian crisis, the Government has “to be careful that we don’t set a precedent that is not sustainable”.

However, a programme to address irregularly settled communities and to prevent further squatting can’t be along the lines of the social housing programme, under which “every week I’m delivering a house to someone who is in need”.

This has to be a major, resource-backed operation (financial and technical), supported by domestic and international partners and on which there is political consensus.