GOVERNMENT’S high-rise housing programme will be officially launched sometime this month. Already the laying of the foundation has begun at Valery in St Michael, where the first in six-storey living units will go up.
Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley, at another housing launch yesterday at the Forde’s Road, St Michael component of the National Housing Corporation’s (NHC) Housing Every Last Person programme, said the high-rise was the Government’s response to the call for improved urban living.
The Forde’s Road project is in partnership with Marshall Trading, which provided the building materials at low cost. This project had been temporarily halted due to the after-effects of Tropical Storm Tomas, but now the building of the four blocks of two-bedroom, one-bathroom rental units was back on track and should be finished by yearend.
Lashley said the complex at Valery would be first ever high-rise living quarters built by any Government of Barbados. He explained that “high-rise” meant buildings of six storeys or more. As such, he added, London Bourne Towers on the corner of Bay Street and Wellington Street, The City, and the buildings in Whitepark, St Michael, were not, as they were only four storeys tall.
Other projects include 72 planned houses in St James in partnership with a private contractor; an Inter-American Development Bank programme which offers a $10 000 subsidy for first-time homeowners, and should benefit 60; and an “in fill” programme in Wildey, St Michael, which will result in 18 rental units being built.
He also said work had begun at Mason Hall Street, The City, and The Grotto, St Michael.
Lashley said all developments had been allocated and were at various stages in the mortgage process, so there would be some delays, but added that the volume of work might result in the need to expand the legal team.
