By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

MEMBERS of Parliament debated a bill yesterday to establish an Urban Renewal Authority, which officials say will drive initiatives to promote local development, address crime, and alleviate poverty.

The bill, tabled earlier this month, empowers the authority to organise Urban Renewal centres, manage community projects — including clubs, training programmes, and educational initiatives — and grant loans for minor home repairs. 

“The aim is to create an environment where economic growth can flourish, thereby lifting people out of poverty and empowering them to contribute meaningfully to their communities,” said Urban Renewal Minister Keith Bell.

He described the authority’s establishment as pivotal in ensuring effective leadership and accountability.

He said the legislation would give the government agency “teeth” and empower it to address a wide range of complex urban issues, including substandard housing, poor sanitation, climate impacts, urban decay, crime, and poverty.

Recalling Urban Renewal’s inception under the Christie administration, Mr Bell said the initiative emerged from a strong commitment to community safety through policing.

He emphasised the “profound impact” it has had on communities and pointed to recent efforts to repair homes, remove hundreds of derelict vehicles and beautify inner-city communities.

However, Marco City MP and opposition leader Michael Pintard suggested that Mr Bell was exaggerating the effectiveness of the Urban Renewal programme.

He argued that the programme was merely a continuation of the work initiated by the former Ingraham administration to transform urban communities.

“But let us be honest, we have not hit the mark yet. It is a work in progress,” he said.

He also called for statistics demonstrating that the Urban Renewal programme has positively impacted the communities it aims to serve.

“Can you,” he asked, “point out any community that you have been working in where the recidivism rate has gone down, where the number of young people that was being expelled from school after your intervention, that number has decreased, where there are less unplanned families and pregnancies because of your health-related interventions?”

“Are you able to point to any of the statistics where the social indices that were bad have improved as a result of this incredible work you are telling us that you’ve done?”

“Any benefit that came from the programme that they described, we certainly applaud, but we should not be deceptive, and if not being deceptive, we should not be delusional about the impact that has been had.”

While expressing support for the bill, he noted that some functions of the Urban Renewal Authority are already being carried out by other government agencies, describing it as “a duplication of services.”

He also called on the government to reconsider its strategy for restructuring Urban Renewal.

Under the bill, the Urban Renewal Authority will be governed by a board of directors consisting of two co-chairpersons appointed by the minister, a managing director, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry responsible for Urban Renewal, and between five and eight additional members representing civil society organisations, also appointed by the minister.

The board will have the power to establish committees, manage contracts, grant loans for community projects and minor home repairs, and identify and report dangerous or dilapidated buildings to the minister.