By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter 

krussell@tribunemedia.net

WHEN he sits down for private discussions with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in New York, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis intends to seek funding assistance for his administration’s housing initiative for the poor.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, the prime minister explained the government would like to offer special concessions to those in the inner city for affordable housing. This, he said, falls in line with a UN goal to assist the less fortunate.

More specifically, the assistance would aid the Minnis administration’s plan of establishing one subdivision every year for the next ten years.

With poverty measured at 12 percent in New Providence and 17.5 percent in the Family Islands, Dr Minnis said the matter was more pressing.

Dr Minnis left the country for New York yesterday and is expected to return tomorrow.

“The UN has sustainable development goals and one of the goals is to deal with poverty and community development,” the prime minister said yesterday ahead of the trip.

“The Over-the-Hill programme to assist the inner city that we instituted, we would be expanding that to more of the impoverished areas to lift them out of poverty.

“While there, I will also speak about the land reform programme and also discuss whether we could get assistance in terms for the further establishment of subdivisions.

“If that is possible, then we could make special concessions for the impoverished.

“Then I would be able to aim at the 12 percent poverty rate in New Providence and the 17.5 percent in the Family Islands to ensure they too can receive land and work towards housing at special prices.”

He continued: “I will speak to the Secretary General in terms of our poor and seek the UN’s help there and about the inner city programme and the roll out of other community projections, especially when it comes to pipe water. That is one of the UN mandates.”

The Over-the-Hill White Paper 2018 was tabled in the House of Assembly in April.

At the time, as he highlighted the inner-city community’s high incidents of crime and poverty exacerbated by poor infrastructure and growing impoverishment of the environment by dilapidated homes and illegal garbage dumping, Dr Minnis said no government has invested the needed resources to facilitate a turnaround.

He said his administration was determined to change these circumstances by “taking back” the streets of the community by targeting illegal gun possession and introducing the empowerment zone concept, which relates to offering special incentives to area designated as such because of economic hardship.

“We know that the physical environs of Over-the-Hill is not where it should be,” he said previously. “While there are many gems in the community, there are also many rough stones.

“Over the past months, the people have witnessed a massive cleanup effort in the community. We plan to make this more consistent. We need to increase existing waste collection efforts in the community. We are planning to restore public spaces and recreational facilities.

“Two other key aspects of this component include: working on improving housing in the Over-the-Hill community and a ‘Water for all Strategy’ to eliminate the need for standpipes and outside toilets by 2025,” Dr Minnis said.

Better healthcare – including mental and family planning services – childcare options for working parents and support for healthy eating and living initiatives, are also proposed by the government, he said.

Regarding green technology, Dr Minnis said he instructed the Ministry of Works and the Beaches and Parks Authority to work together to ensure upgrades to parks and to ensure all parks have free Wi-Fi. This he said, is to be accessible to all Over-the-Hill residents.

Two parks in the inner city are scheduled to begin refurbishment in June this year.

Programmes that support both the youth and elderly also will be established, he said.