Quarry resident elated at new home
AS MARVA Mason clutched the keys to her new home in St James, she remembered the discomfort of setting a container to catch rainwater on one side of her bed as she slept in her ramshackle wooden dwelling.
Mason, who lives in Quarry district with her four children, was bubbling with joy as Prime Minister Andrew Holness presented her on Wednesday with the new home she had always been hoping for.
“When the rainy season or the hurricane season comes, I don’t have to run anymore. I can now say ‘Thank you, Jesus! ’I have a solid roof over my head, ”Mason told The Gleaner after the handover.
Mason has, over the years, been engaged in a wide range of odd jobs – from housekeeping in the hospitality industry to mixing concrete on construction sites.
“I tried tirelessly and now this has come through for me. I am really appreciative of this because the house that I was in was in a very bad condition, ”said Mason.
The 48-year-old disclosed that the dwelling she once called home was a dilapidated structure with a rotten ceiling that could have collapsed at any time.
“A two time me drop through the flooring in the house,” she recalled on Wednesday.
The new house came courtesy of the Government’s Social Housing Programme.
Holness said that the Social Housing Programme was positioned to help underserved Jamaicans whose low incomes bar them from access to mortgages, including securing down payments.
“Their situation is such that they just wouldn’t be able to afford the housing solutions that are brought to the market, ”the prime minister said at the handover.
Holness likened Mason’s new situation as moving from the caterpillar to a butterfly.
“If you look at what this programme has done, it has transformed the life and condition of living of Marva and her four kids – totally transformed it, ”said Holness.