The Opposition Spokesman on Housing and Sustainable Living, Senator Floyd Morris, is dismissing the claims of Prime Minister Andrew Holness of reaching the target of 70,000 houses as a bare-faced lie.

According to Morris, this claim is a deception which is not supported by the data. “In 2023, the prime minister indicated that the National Housing Trust (NHT) had committed to building 43,000 of the 70,000 houses and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) 15,000. He never stated who was to build the other 12,000 to make the total of 70,000 houses. Of the 43,000 houses that the NHT had committed to, 35,000 were at various stages, and the remaining 8,000 were to be figured out.”

For the NHT to achieve that milestone in two years is most unlikely, given that for the past ten years, the institution has only been able to bring just over 2,000 houses to the market annually.  

Senator Morris said, “It would require the NHT to take an average of 21,500 housing solutions to the market in two years for this milestone to be achieved. We have not seen this robustness with housing solutions from the NHT under the JLP government. Indeed, these numbers are not reflected in the Annual Reports of the NHT or the Fiscal Policy Papers presented to the Parliament.”

According to Senator Morris, an examination of the Fiscal Policy Paper tabled by the Holness-led administration in March 2025, revealed the following on page 40: “The Trust expects to commence construction of 6,366 housing units, compared to its original target of 15,009 and estimates to complete construction of 2,754, compared to its original target of 3,664.” 

He further outlined that the 2023 Annual Report of the NHT revealed that 2,686 houses were brought to the market by the NHT, and in 2024, it fell further to 2,582. “These do not add up to the claim the prime minister, who has also had problems reconciling his own personal accounts, and to get his statutory declarations certified by the Integrity Commission.

“The PM is under pressure from the visionary housing policies delineated by the People’s National Party, and has resorted to deceiving the people. It is emblematic of a man who is drunk on power and will do anything in his desperation to hold onto it,” he continued.

The Opposition Spokesman is calling on the prime minister to come clean to the Jamaican people on this matter. “Prime Minister, you need to reconcile all your numbers articulated in your various publications on the websites of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Jamaica Information Service and those in your Budget presentations from 2020 onwards. They do not support your claim of building 70,000 houses.”