Adrian Frater, News Editor

Chang

Western Bureau:

Housing and Water Minister Dr. Horace Chang has outlined plans for the extensive transformation of Montego Bay's 19 inner-city communities in another 20 months.

In articulating his plans to replace despair with hope in the inner-city areas, Dr. Chang told stakeholders of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry last Thursday that he intends to improve the quality of life in those areas through better housing, proper roads, the regularisation of water and electricity and the training of unemployed youngsters.

"I have been calling for something to be done to improve the quality of life in these communities for a long time," said Dr. Chang, Member of Parliament for North West St. James, home to 17 of the inner-city areas. "Now that I am in a position to do something about it, I intend to."

While noting that he will not be able to do much under the current inherited budget, Dr. Chang said that come next April, allocation would be made to address situations such as the poor roads in Providenc the water situation in Norwood and the proposed Glendevon Trade Training Centre.

Vital for social intervention

"The trade training centre is going to be critical as it is one of the social intervention programmes we are looking at providing training for the young men who are falling into a life of crime," noted Dr. Chang. "We must get them to see work as a to crime."

To eliminate the need for further informal housing development, as well as improving the current housing situation, Dr. Chang said some 30,000 housing solutions are to be built between Barrett Hall, Lilliput, Norwood and sections of Rose Heights.

"We intend to see all these communities, whether they are Greenfield or renewal, have the character of accepted Jamaican communities," said Dr. Chang. Montego Bay's 19 inner cities have become a nursery for criminality within recent times, accounting for over 80 per cent of the city's 100 plus murder over the past five years.