Seema Kadir

seema.kadir@uwimona.edu.jm

• Public Housing Provision & Social Exclusion: Understanding the State's Role – A Comparative Study of Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica

Thesis Abstract

There are two main phases of mass public housing construction in Trinidad and Tobago since independence, focusing on urban and suburban areas. The first phase was between 1978 and 1987 under the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the second is the current boom, 2003 to present, under the Housing Development Corporation (HDC). The government's Vision 2020 states that 10 000 housing units are required annually over the next ten years to meet the housing deficit. Current annual supply by the government is estimated at 8000 with the hope that the private sector produces the additional 2000 deemed necessary. In Jamaica, there has been an estimated need of 15 500 new housing units annually. The demand and supply of housing has consistently been disproportionate towards the urban centres, in particular, the Kingston Metropolitan Region. The National Housing Trust, Ministry of Housing and private developers are the major financiers and developers of large housing schemes.

Despite the scale of construction, the public housing markets in Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica have not been researched in detail. It is important for policy makers to: 1) understand the demographic characteristics of the residents of these schemes, 2) understand how communities form over time, 3) determine if there is adequate access to basic necessities, and 4) understand the rental and mortgage markets to ensure that housing is truly accessible for all.

This dissertation analyses and evaluates household characteristics (age of household head, employment/unemployment, length of employment, monthly income of household head and consumption costs, education, tenure, perception of mortgage/rent payments, perceptions of community) from three NHA (1980s) developments and three new (2005) HDC developments in Trinidad and Tobago; and three old (1976-1990) and three new (1990-2007) schemes in the Kingston Metropolitan Region, Jamaica, to identify patterns of inclusion and exclusion from these projects. Semi-structured interviews of personnel from the banking sector (Scotia Bank), the Trinidad and Tobago Mortgage Finance Company (TTMF), the National Housing Trust (NHT) the main provider of residential mortgages, and Real Estate Agencies, provide further information for understanding the processes and outcomes which exclude certain income groups from the formal housing market and possible reasons for such exclusion. It is hoped that such research would shed light on the changing role of Caribbean states in the provision of housing under the influence of global and local factors. It is only through this understanding of processes and outcomes that steps can be taken towards ameliorating deficiencies in housing provision.

Supervisor: Dr. Jimmy Tindigarukayo

Selected Publications

Kadir, S. Public Housing and Economic Exclusion: Cases Studies from Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica (accepted), On Housing Journal, National Housing Trust. (November 2009).

Kadir, S. Public Housing and Political Exclusion in Trinidad and Tobago. Caribbean Geography Journal (submitted).

Kadir, S. (2009). The Relevance of CSME in the Global Economy. UWI Connect, (4) 3:

Kadir, S. (2008). Reviews in brief: Decolonizing the colonial city: urbanization and stratification in Kingston, Jamaica. By Colin Clarke. Oxford: Oxford University Press Inc. 2006. Cultural Geographies, 15: 399-400.

Kadir, S. (2008). The Housing Crisis and its impact on Jamaica: An Overview, Jamaican Geographer, No. 18: 5.

Kadir, S. (2008). Exploring the Cultural Richness of Southern India: Part 2, Jamaican Geographer, No. 17: 6.

Kadir, S. (2007). Exploring the Cultural Richness of Southern India: Part 1, Jamaican Geographer, No. 16: 1,4.

Conferences
Kadir, S. Who are the Excluded? Gaps in Trinidad and Tobago’s Housing Market. 8th Conference –Faculty of Pure & Applied Sciences, UWI, 26th-28th February, 2008.

Kadir, S. The Imprint of Historical Labour Divisions on the Ethnic Composition & Political Affiliation of Residents of Public Housing Schemes in Trinidad. Foundations and Directions: Celebrating Geography and Geology at the UWI, 7th – 11th July, 2008.

The Housing Development Process - From Concept to Completion. Jamaica Mortgage Bank Housing Development Seminar 3, March 18th, 2009.

Projects
The University of Technology and The University of the West Indies, National Housing Project 2008-2009 for the Ministry of Water and Housing.

Mona Information Literacy Unit. Assessment of the Undergraduate Training Programme. November 2009.

Ministry of Health and USAID, JA-STYLE Monitoring and Evaluation Report 2008. Community Health and Psychiatry, UWI, Mona.

Social Development Commission. Community Wealth Assessment Project 2008.
Off-Campus Housing Accommodation Project. In association with Mona GeoInformatics Institute, 2006.

Awards
Global Santa Fe Scholarship through the Institute of Critical Thinking, UWI, St. Augustine –
March 2009- present.

The Professor E. Nigel Harris UWI STAT CSME Essay Competition 2009.

UWI Post Graduate Scholarship – September 2006 – March 2009.

Post Graduate Researcher of the Year – Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago
Mona Chapter, 2006-2007.

Barry Floyd Prize for Best Performance in Level I (2003-2004) and Level II (2004-2005) Geography,
Dept. of Geography & Geology, UWI.