JAMAICA IS BEING GENTRIFIED — BUT WHO WILL OWN THE JAMAICA THAT EMERGES? By Richard Hugh Blackford.

As the dust settles from the recent demolition of squatter-developed housing in both St Thomas and Coopers Pen in Trelawny, the careful observer should be looking beyond the zinc, the concrete blocks, splintered lumber, and twisted steel bars left behind. Take a long look at the land and what is happening around it. Take a look also at the proliferation of high-rise hotels, luxury condominiums, villas, gated communities and premium developments that have been appearing across Jamaica. There is a word that increasingly connects these developments. That word is “Gentrification.”

Gentrification generally describes the transformation of lower-income communities as wealthier residents and investors enter, property values rise, development intensifies and the original population becomes increasingly unable to afford to remain.

Jamaica's version though, is considerably more complicated because it intersects with an unresolved land question that goes all the way back to Emancipation.

THE LAND PROBLEM BEGAN WITH BLACK PEOPLE FREEDOM

The formerly enslaved received freedom but no meaningful economic package with which to begin that freedom. They received no land, houses, or compensation; and few economic opportunities independent of the plantation economy from which they had supposedly been liberated. The fact is that they nevertheless had to live somewhere.

Land capture, squatting and the establishment of informal communities therefore became part of Jamaica's post-slavery reality. Nearly two centuries later, we are still confronting its consequences.

This is not merely my interpretation of Jamaican history. The Housing Agency of Jamaica, in explaining the origins of Operation PRIDE, acknowledges that newly freed Jamaicans were driven to occupy Crown and marginal lands after Emancipation because of landlessness.

That history is important when we watch bulldozers demolishing informal communities in 2026 because while the machines have changed, the fundamental question of where poor Jamaicans are supposed to live has not.

JAMAICA ONCE TRIED ANOTHER APPROACH

The irony is that Jamaica has previously demonstrated that government can address informal settlement through something other than demolition. Back in the 1990s, the country reportedly produced some 48,250 housing units, making it one of Jamaica's most productive housing decades.

For context, Greater Portmore became one of the country's most ambitious mass-housing developments. Government-private-sector partnerships produced thousands of starter homes.

Then there was Operation PRIDE- the Programme for Resettlement and Integrated Development Enterprise. The philosophy of which is particularly relevant today; as rather than simply treating squatters as trespassers who needed to be removed, PRIDE attempted to make land legally accessible and affordable to lower-income Jamaicans, regularise existing settlements and provide serviced lots upon which families could progressively build.

PRIDE certainly had problems. Cost overruns, administrative weaknesses, allegations of political favouritism and other difficulties undermined the programme. But its underlying principle remains important. It is recognized that squatting is fundamentally a housing and land-tenure problem, not merely a law-enforcement problem.

JAMAICAN LAND BECAME GOLD

At the same time, another Jamaica was emerging as Tourism expanded, Roads improved. The airports expanded as Resort corridors developed, birthing the entry of international capital into the island. Suddenly, land that previous generations regarded as marginal suddenly became enormously valuable. The expansion of the tourism industry eventually brought massive foreign-owned resorts, particularly along the north coast.

Then came another wave. Luxury villas, boutique hotels, gated communities, high-rise condominiums and the demand for short-term rentals. Premium residential developments marketed as much to international purchasers and the diaspora as to residents earning Jamaican wages. This has fundamentally changed the economics of Jamaican land.

Prior to this, a fisherman would have seen a beach as the place from which his family has launched boats for three generations. The developer saw exactly the same beach and calculated how many US-dollar-priced villas can be constructed beside it: two entirely different concepts of value; and invariably the person possessing the greater capital wins.

WHEN “AUTHENTIC JAMAICA” BECOMES THE PRODUCT

The transformation is particularly ironic in rural coastal communities- areas which now becomes attractive precisely because they are not highly developed. Their fishing villages, beaches, small restaurants, local architecture and community culture become internationally marketable as "authentic Jamaica." Then investors arrive to purchase that authenticity, and out of that the villa appears. Then another, then the boutique hotel, then the Airbnb’ then the condominium development. Naturally, land prices increase, and rents increase; and eventually the people who created the authenticity being marketed can no longer afford to live within it. That is where development begins crossing the line into gentrification.

KINGSTON IS EXPERIENCING ITS OWN VERSION

The phenomenon is not confined to Jamaica's coastline. Just take a drive through Kingston and St Andrew, and you see the disappearance of single-family houses and multi-storey apartment developments are appearing in their place. Increased urban density is not inherently undesirable. Kingston has limited land and requires more efficient residential development. The real question is affordability.

If teachers, nurses, police officers, civil servants, tradespeople and young professionals cannot afford the apartments being constructed, then Jamaica can experience a construction boom and a housing crisis simultaneously. We can build thousands of housing units without solving the housing problem. Because the critical question isn't merely about how many houses are being built? It is for whom are they being built?

HURRICANE MELISSA MAY HAVE CHANGED EVERYTHING

Then came Hurricane Melissa- the October 2025 catastrophe which devastated large sections of western and southwestern Jamaica, including Black River and surrounding communities. But disasters do something besides destroying buildings. They create opportunities to redraw communities. Roads can be repositioned, and building standards can change. Commercial districts can be relocated, and land can be reorganized. In fact, entire towns can effectively be redesigned.

The Government has understandably argued that Jamaica cannot simply rebuild vulnerable communities exactly as they existed before Melissa. Black River, for example, is being proposed as a climate-resilient redevelopment model. There is considerable logic to that argument as no responsible government should knowingly rebuild critical infrastructure in precisely the same vulnerable manner that allowed it to be destroyed. But there is another question Jamaica must ask; and that is : What happens to the people who occupied those communities before the hurricane?

ENTER NaRRA

The National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority — NaRRA — potentially represents one of the most consequential development interventions in modern Jamaica. Its mandate is enormous. Reconstruction following Melissa provides Government with the opportunity to rethink infrastructure, housing, transportation, commercial centres and climate resilience across affected communities. That could be transformative; but transformation also carries risk. For example, the redevelopment of Black River is particularly significant because Government has indicated that principles being applied there could become a template for development elsewhere. And that should immediately raise another question: A template for what; and for whom?

If redevelopment improves drainage, roads, hospitals, markets, utilities and housing while allowing existing residents to remain and participate economically, Jamaica could create a model of inclusive regeneration.

But if redevelopment dramatically increases land values, replaces informal and lower-income communities with premium developments and leaves former residents unable to return, the outcome will look very different. That would resemble state-facilitated gentrification.

The distinction will be determined not by architectural drawings, but by what happens to the people.

THE TITLE PROBLEM COULD BECOME THE DECIDING PROBLEM

This is where Jamaica's historic land-tenure problem becomes extremely important as many families have occupied land for decades without possessing registered titles. Some properties pass informally from grandparents to parents to children. Boundaries may be understood by everybody in the community but inadequately documented in the formal land-registration system. That arrangement can survive for generations; until the land becomes valuable. Then the absence of a title becomes decisive.

Imagine a family occupying the same property for fifty years.A hurricane destroys the house. Government determines that the area must be comprehensively redeveloped. The resident says: "This is where my family has always lived." The system asks: "Where is your title?"

That could become one of the defining social questions of post-Melissa Jamaica.

RECONSTRUCTION MUST NOT BECOME DISPLACEMENT

NaRRA therefore presents Jamaica with both an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary responsibility. The country unquestionably needs resilient rebuilding.

Black River and other areas need rebuilding. Savanna-la-Mar and other damaged communities require major investment. Hospitals, markets, roads, schools, drainage systems and public infrastructure must be reconstructed to standards capable of surviving the increasingly dangerous climate environment. But resilience cannot simply mean stronger concrete. A resilient Jamaica must also protect the people who already live there. Otherwise, we risk rebuilding communities that can survive hurricanes but from which the original residents have disappeared.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS A CHOICE

NaRRA could actually become part of the solution to Jamaica's centuries-old squatter problem. Imagine using reconstruction to identify long-established informal communities. Survey the land, establish legitimate claims, and regularize tenure where possible. Create serviced lots and construct affordable housing. Provide long-term low-cost financing by using the National Housing Trust.

Relocate families only where environmental or safety considerations genuinely require it — and when relocation is necessary, provide secure tenure at the new location.

That would represent genuine transformation. It would mean that Jamaica finally used development to solve the historical problem rather than merely moving it somewhere else.

OR WE CAN REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE

The alternative is troubling for as Government builds the infrastructure, developers acquire the premium land. Hotels, condominiums, and villas rise. So too does property values. Jamaica celebrates billions of dollars in investment, meanwhile the fisherman moves farther inland, while the hotel worker travels two hours to work. The domestic helper cleans an apartment worth more than she will earn during her lifetime. The construction worker builds houses that he could never qualify to purchase- and another informal settlement appears somewhere else. Then, twenty years later, when that land becomes valuable too, another bulldozer arrives. That is not solving squatting. That is relocating poverty.

FROM EMANCIPATION TO NaRRA

This is why the demolitions in St Thomas and Trelawny deserve far more serious consideration than the simplistic question of whether the occupants’ possessed titles. The larger issue is the economic transformation of Jamaican land. Who owns it? Who can afford it? Who develops it? Who profits from it? And who gets removed when its value increases?

Successive PNP and JLP administrations have confronted pieces of this problem. Different governments have constructed housing, distributed lots, attempted regularization and created social-housing programmes. Yet the underlying contradiction remains.

Nearly two centuries after Emancipation, substantial numbers of Jamaicans still cannot legally secure the small piece of Jamaica upon which they live.

Now place that historic inequality beside a tourism boom, luxury condominium construction, foreign investment, short-term rentals, escalating land prices and potentially massive post-Melissa reconstruction. The implications should concern all of us.

WHO WILL OWN THE JAMAICA THHAT EMERGES?

Let me state that there is nothing inherently wrong with development. Jamaica needs investment including hotels, housing, infrastructure, and resilient towns. We also need foreign exchange. But development cannot simply mean increasing the monetary value of Jamaica while decreasing ordinary Jamaicans' ability to own Jamaica. That is the danger.

NaRRA could provide Jamaica with perhaps the greatest opportunity in generations to confront squatting, insecure tenure and inadequate housing on a national scale. Or reconstruction could accelerate an already developing divide between those who possess valuable Jamaican land and those who merely live and work upon it.

The difference will depend on whether the people currently occupying these communities are regarded as obstacles to development — or participants in development. That is why the bulldozers in St Thomas and Trelawny matter. They are forcing us to confront something much larger than squatting. The Jamaica emerging around us is becoming increasingly valuable as the hotels are getting taller, and the condominiums are becoming more luxurious. The infrastructure is becoming more sophisticated, and the investment numbers are becoming larger. But after all the reconstruction, redevelopment and billions of dollars have been spent, one question will matter more than all the others: Will ordinary Jamaicans still be able to afford a piece of Jamaica?

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