Editorial | Tackling squatting

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’ pledge to relocate the Coopers Pen squatters whose homes were demolished last month, will address what he rightly described as a “humanitarian tragedy”.

But finding alternative places to live for the 99 people who were, several years ago, ordered by the court to vacate the private property is like the proverbial finger in the dyke. It will do little to address the historic crisis of landlessness in Jamaica and the socio-economic problems that it breeds.

Indeed, by government estimates, between 750,000 and 900,000 people, or up to a third of the island’s population, live in squatter, or irregularly settled, communities. Further, according to the Government, there is a backlog of 150,000 houses, although it is not clear whether the figure represents effective demand in the economic sense, that is, people who can afford and are in the market for homes, or the island’s broader shelter needs.

In any event, a problem of this scale and complexity cannot be solved in either the short or medium term using traditional or incremental programmes, or in the absence of political consensus. Otherwise, the fix will take decades. And even then, the outcome will be uncertain, as evidenced by the fact that Jamaica has been pursuing land reform and land titling for more than half a century, since the Michael Manley administration of the 1970s.

Put another way, solving the problem of squatting and informal settlements will require the expansion and acceleration of existing programmes and bold, aggressive new ones. Some of these may cause tensions with perceived settled norms, including property rights.

That is why The Gleaner’s Editorial Board again recommends the urgent reconvening of the Vale Royal Talks between the Government and the political Opposition, at which the issue of squatting and land should be high on the agenda, as well as calls on the Government to resuscitate, and recommit to, the National Partnership Council, the forum at which the Government, the Opposition, the private sector, the labour movement, and civil society groups were to regularly discuss the administration’s policy proposals.

complicated issues

The issues surrounding the more than 700-acre Coopers Pen, Trelawny property are complicated. There is, however, broad agreement that squatters have been on a section of the land since the 1960s, although there is no evidence that the occupants made claims for ownership through adverse possession until the 2010s. And that was only as a cross-claim when the owners sought a court order for their eviction after years of attempts, beginning earlier in the decade, to have them removed.

When the court ordered the eviction of 99 squatters, former Housing Minister Omar Davies issued an order for the acquisition of the nine occupied acres for redevelopment. However, a judge rebuffed his move, saying it was an attempt to gain through the back door what had been denied in the earlier ruling. By that time, infrastructure development on Jamaica’s north coast and a boom in hotel construction had caused the value of the property to spiral.

Coopers Pen, as the Government’s statistics on squatting make clear, is not an isolated case. Squatting disputes crop up frequently across the island, even though the specifics of the matters vary. It is one of the legacies of Jamaica’s history of chattel slavery.

When slavery ended in 1838, black Jamaicans left the plantations without land. Few had, or could accumulate, the capital to acquire property. Their settlements were largely informal. When land was acquired, it was usually untitled in a system where a perfected title is a critical instrument in unlocking wealth.

One hundred and eighty-eight years later, those constraints largely persist, complicated by a political culture that often promotes squatting as a means of corralling votes.

These are not easy nuts to crack and will require cross-party consensus to prevent one side or the other from derailing initiatives for partisan gain. Even then, and notwithstanding adjustments to the law to speed up aspects of the titling regime, expansive thinking will be necessary.

In that regard, the Editorial Board offers some ideas, though not an exhaustive list, that Jamaica might consider:

. Where practical, amnesties or moratoriums on mass evictions or the demolition of property, such as happened at Coopers Pen, to ensure an environment conducive to a national discussion of the problem;

. Serious consideration of incremental titling and graduated property rights, without abolishing the Torrens system, whose process for creating indefeasible titles can be slow and costly. It should not be beyond the ingenuity of Jamaicans to devise an intermediate legal instrument prior to an indefeasible title;

. Granting, especially on government lands, permits for temporary occupancy to prevent the arbitrary removal of squatters while infrastructure is being upgraded and settlements are being formalised;

. Streamlining the law on adverse possession to bring clarity to the process;

. Using cooperative arrangements, including mutual-benefit schemes, friendly societies, and community land trusts, in which communities work together to raise capital for land acquisition and infrastructure development. Operation PRIDE, if better managed, offers one model for such cooperation;

. Seeking financial and technical support from global partners, including development banks, for geospatial and cadastral mapping; and

. Mobilising communities, students, and NGO volunteers to work on the project, similar to the JAMAL literacy initiative of the 1970s.