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Caribbean Housing Is Expensive and Scarce. Here’s How to Change That

May 31, 2017 by Michael G. Donovan - Therese Turner-Jones 2 Comments


By Michael G. Donovan and Therese Turner-Jones

This article first appeared as a Web Exclusive on April 20, 2017 for policy journal Americas Quarterly. Read the original piece here.

The Caribbean is caught in a housing trap. The cost of living is high: building a house in Kingston is three times more expensive than in a typical Latin American city. This has left ten million people in The Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago without a decent roof over their heads. Building adequate housing for this population would cost about $18 billion – a number that only grows as the rising cost of living pushes more people out of the market. Without action, conditions will worsen, as more than 80 percent of the Caribbean population will be living in cities by the year 2050.


This trap does have a way out, however. A study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), The State of Social Housing in Six Caribbean Countries, has looked at successful efforts to tackle the lack of affordable housing across the region. Governments have launched programs to expand social housing, lower mortgage lending costs, and promote disaster-resistant buildings. The Dominican Republic is a case in point: in 1990, close to thirty percent of Dominicans lived in substandard housing; this proportion has decreased to under fifteen percent today.

Despite this progress, much more needs to be done. By looking at what has worked and the gaps that remain, an affordable housing action plan for the Caribbean would contain at least three elements:

First, we need new alliances between financial institutions, housing ministries, and construction firms. A first generation of partnerships created many successful options for the middle class but failed to find solutions for lower income residents. Government alone cannot fill the gap. To incubate new low-cost housing developers, governments need to design attractive packages that reduce the costs of acquiring land and support the development of durable low-cost building materials. The development of new rent-to-own schemes in Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago illustrate the sort of innovative approaches that are needed.

Second, if we are truly to leave no one behind, we need a new social contract with informal settlements in Caribbean cities. Neighborhood upgrading projects could revitalize the region’s shanty towns, bidonvilles and tugurios through new housing, public spaces, infrastructure, and schools. But these programs will only succeed if they are done in close collaboration with residents and community-based organizations. Governments already acknowledge that low-income families build and renovate their homes at a massive scale in the region. Suriname leveraged this expertise by providing discounted building materials to certified community-based organizations trained in housing construction. This led to the repair and expansion of thousands of homes. Jamaica too is driving down costs using this model, providing free design services that allow social housing residents to both expand their homes and comply with building codes.

Lastly, we must call on governments at all levels to establish and enforce housing policies with explicit targets for affordable housing. Elevating housing policy as a national development priority would revitalize distressed neighborhoods and limit sprawl. Last year, United Nations member states committed to “ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing” by 2030, as spelled out in the landmark Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is fundamental as Caribbean residents flock to cities in decades to come.

The need for transformative action on this front in the Caribbean is clear and conditions are ripe. It is up to all leaders in government, business, and civil society to galvanize housing and radically improve quality of life in the region.


Filed Under: Social Systems Tagged With: caribbean, housing, infrastructure

Michael G. Donovan

Michael G. Donovan is a Senior Housing and Urban Development Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank where he oversees several programs in the urban portfolio. Recent publications at the IDB include A Blue Urban Agenda: Adapting to Climate Change in Coastal Cities and The State of Social Housing in Six Caribbean Countries. Prior to joining the IDB in 2013, he held positions at USAID, OECD, and the United Nations, working to increase access to urban services and elevate the role of local governments in global development policy debates. Donovan holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from UC-Berkeley, a Master of City Planning from M.I.T., and a BA in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

Therese Turner-Jones

Born in The Bahamas, Therese Turner-Jones is the general manager of the Caribbean Country Group of the Country Department (CCB), which oversees the Bank's operations in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago. While in this role, she continues to serve as country representative for Jamaica. Turner-Jones joined the IDB in 2013 as a country representative in Jamaica. She has more than 20 years of experience in the areas of macroeconomics and economic development, with an emphasis on the Caribbean. She has held key positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) including the role of Deputy Head of Division for the Caribbean II Division, Western Hemisphere Department, and previously as Advisor to the Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean. Prior to his job at the IMF, she was Deputy Manager of the Research Department of the Central Bank of the Bahamas. Turner-Jones is an economist from the University of Toronto and has a master's degree in economics from the University of East Anglia, UK. He graduated from United World Colleges (Lester Pearson College).

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jamir NAzir says

    June 2, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    I read the article and applaud the comments of the author, to highlight a serious issue facing the Caribbean region. While I am in agreement with the author of the various initiatives that governments can directly purse to address the problem, I am more hopeful that partnerships forged between the public and private sector and progressive polices implemented by governments to enable private sector provided low cost quality housing will be more effective. In most cases history will reveal that solo initiatives by governments have not been able to have as significant impact as required on the solving the problem.
    Additionally, private sector players have to become more innovative in utilizing modern building materials and techniques to improve quality and to reduce cost and time in construction. This will necessitate public education programs which government can assist with. The latter is important as traditionally the materials used in construction in the region has been concrete and block with lightly manual labour being employed. However, advances made with newer light weigh, less costly elements resistant material has become available. These produce much better results. IN fact only recently I visited a production facility in Trinidad that produces polystyrene isometric blocks for construction use and a light weigh but durable wall and roof paneling material. This type of technology if it becomes integrated into mainstream construction has the potential to make a significant positive impact on the housing crisis in Trinidad and the wider region

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