Letter of the Day | Invisible homelessness: a generation locked out of housing

THE EDITOR, Madam:

When Jamaicans hear the word homelessness, we often picture the man in Half-Way Tree eating from bins or the woman downtown begging for change. Their suffering is real. But this narrow image hides a broader and growing crisis –invisible homelessness. Housing has become so expensive that many Jamaicans are “housed,” yet functionally homeless, unable to afford safe, stable, independent living.

Today, homelessness looks like the woman in her late 30s still living with her parents, not out of preference but economic necessity. It looks like adult siblings waiting on the deadleff because inheritance has become the only realistic path to land ownership. It looks like young people constructing makeshift homes on unstable hillsides or gully banks because they have nowhere else to go.

This is not a failure of ambition. It is a failure of structure.

Wages have not kept pace with land and housing prices. Rent consumes unsustainable portions of income. Access to credit remains limited for young people without inherited assets or guarantors. Many mortgage products are designed for dual income households, though a growing number of Jamaicans are delaying or forgoing marriage.

If an educated, employed Jamaican cannot afford independent living, can we truly say that person is securely housed?

Addressing this crisis requires deliberate public policy. Government must expand the supply of genuinely affordable housing, not middle income developments marketed as “starter homes.” Developers receiving public incentives or land must be required to include units accessible to low and middle income earners.

Institutions such as the National Housing Trust must be modernised to reflect current realities. Greater flexibility is needed for single applicants and firsttime buyers, and the contribution benefit structure must be adjusted for younger contributors whose earnings lag behind rising housing costs.

The rental market – largely informal and unregulated – also demands reform. Reasonable rent controls and tenant protections are essential to prevent arbitrary increases, unsafe living conditions, and sudden displacement.

Housing policy must be integrated with labour, transport, and urban planning. An “affordable” home far from jobs, schools, and services is not a solution; it is displacement by geography. Better land use planning is equally important. When serviced, affordable land is unavailable, people are pushed into floodplains, gullies, and unstable slopes.

Most importantly, Jamaica must broaden its understanding of homelessness. Until we acknowledge those displaced by economic forces – working Jamaicans trapped in dependency – our national response will remain inadequate.

The question is no longer who looks homeless, but how many of us already are.

TIMMOY T. SINCLAIR