Since the 1950s, housing supply has struggled to meet the simultaneous challenges of population growth and increased rural-to-urban migration in Jamaica. The 'housing market' is largely inaccessible to medium and low income households where the majority of the demand lies, and market mechanisms like the National Housing Trust have failed form the beginning to adequately redistribute access to housing. Indeed, the right to housing depends largely on your ability to afford it. The unforgiving link between living and livelihood is felt most acutely by women who continue to earn less than men and are systematically made financially dependent. For generations, Jamaican women navigated a patriarchal housing system where their access was mediated by their adjacency to a man.

Written in 1989 this Sistren Magazine article captured the experiences of working-class women employed in Kingston in the pursuit of decent and affordable housing. Thirty-five years later and this article and its solutions are still as relevant as it was then.

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MALE ATTACHMENT NEEDED:

"A woman's place is in the home" translated means, "Woman is the handservant of man, her protector". This description of existing social relations is nothing short of a fairy story - a myth that is central to women's lack of access to housing and property. Women hardly ever inherit property. It is left to the sons. The justification is that they (the sons) have responsibility for wives and children. In a case where property is left to sons and daughters and there is no peaceful settlement, more often than not, male physical strength and bullying wins out. This can't be right when in the majority of cases, it is woman's wages that provide her needs and the needs of her children.

Even in cases where we struggle and work and save until we have our deposit to buy a house, mortgage institutions don't want to make loans to single women. If we are married and wish to purchase property, they insist on using our husbands as guarantors. If we are separated, they want some other man to back us. We are expected to have a male attached somewhere. The truth is that many of us ( over a third) head our own households and have responsibility not only for our children but the elderly as well. Yet even the most economical shelter, squatting on captured land, frequently involves too much violence for us to cope with. So we are forced, for security reasons, into a rental market which tightly restricts our capacity to save the capital for private home ownership. The end result is an enormous burden of poverty and social suffering for many of our women.
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How many women are now in relationships where they are physically and/or mentally and emotionally abused; relationships they want to end but are forced to live with because they have nowhere for themselves and their children to go? How many mothers are today looking the other way as their daughters suffer sexual harassment, because they are imprisoned by the lack of a place to escape to? What is the cost of survival for a young , single woman when rentals are like any other scarce commodity on the open market; when even if she has the qualifications or the cash, she may have to give other favours to edge out the competition? Usually she doesn't have the cash and has to kotch with relatives or friends - another problematic situation. (Enter the Boops!)
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FINDING SOLUTIONS

As handicapped runners with the odds against us, we have quite an uphill struggle. This is especially so when you consider that the National Shelter Strategy Report (a government document produced in 1987) assessed that Jamaica needs approximately 15,000 new units, and 10,000 upgraded units per year for the next 20 years to fill current needs. And, reflect further on the fact that the government over the past eight years has barely produced one year's requirement. But as this issue of Sistren shows, we are struggling to find creative solutions.
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DESIGN HELPS COMMUNITY RELATIONS

The St. Peter Claver project is making efforts to secure adequate housing for some Free Zone women. Adequate housing means not only acquiring the physical space but taking women's needs into account in the design of that space. The design of shelter affects community relations. The grid system of planning, places house in even rows. This system often overlooks social needs like play areas for small children that can easily be seen from the house, and the need for easy communication with neighbours for security and other reasons. It is in our interest to lobby to have our needs taken into consideration from the earliest planning stages.
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NEW FORMS OF OWNERSHIP

We are also looking at forms of ownership and how to expand the low income housing stock, while preventing market forces taking over and pushing prices beyond our reach once again.

One answer is a co-operative like the St. Peter Claver scheme, where housing charges are affordable and residents have security of tenure as long as they abide by the rules, which they themselves have made. Other ownership questions relate to who controls the property. The St. Peter Claver group, using the experience of some Canadian co-operatives, ensure women retain control by ruling that while men can live in the properties they cannot be co-op members.

In a co-operative in Mexico City, the constitution calls for land titles to be registered in the names of the women to protect the family if the male partner abandons them. Rules of conduct also specify that violence or force cannot be used against women and children. Co-op rules, of course, are not cast in iron. They can be changed over the years by a majority, to take into consideration changed conditions.
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NEW LAWS:

Last year a new Jamaican law was passed which does strengthen women's property rights. If a woman has been in a common law relationship for five years or more, she now has a claim on the property of her husband if he dies without making a will. However, men still have overwhelming control over property. Whether you are a wife by registration or by common-law, your partner can still will all property registered in his name to whomever he pleases. The law is blind to the contribution of the wife, financial or otherwise, which made it possible for him to acquire those assets. 
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COLLECTIVE PRESSURE NEEDED:

There are several answers to this problem:

1. We need to be more conscious about safe guarding our rights by insisting on joint property titles.
2. Collective pressure to change laws which weaken our rights. Join a group that has housing on its agenda and help to strengthen the lobby. There is power in unity.
3. A determination to build up our own assets. Most of us are coming from a position of economic weakness, but we also know that "One one coco full basket". Many individuals can fill many baskets. For example one women's group is examining the possibility of starting a huge partner. One half of each person's drawdown would still be available for short-term cash flow needs. The other half would be invested with a financial institution from which each member of the partner could receive loans for housing, for income generation, for education, or whatever. Imagine the possibilities of such a full basket put together by thousands of Jamaican women! As a member of the Zimbabwe Women's Bureau put it: "Without money-making skills, all talk of emancipation for women is a legal nicety ... " (Kate McCalman).
4. We also need clear understandable information on what is available now - simple fact sheets on Tenant's Rights, where loans are available and how we can get them, what types of housing are available and so on.
5. There is also an immediate need for refuge for severely abused women over and above the limited service being offered, albeit commendably, by the Women's Crisis Centre.
6. We must continue to lobby government and other institutions. The Bureau of Women's Affairs, after consultation with women's organisations, has placed housing as one of the priorities for the 1989 Plan of Action towards implementation of the National Policy Statement on Women. The new government has committed itself to listen to the views of the people, so we expect that when the proposed National Advisory Council is set up, not only trade unions and the private sector will be represented, but also the non-governmental development sector generally and women's organisations in particular.

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CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING: A WAY FORWARD FOR WOMEN

The St. Peter Claver Women's Housing Co-operative is not just about improving the housing conditions of its members - although this objective alone is reason for it to exist. It is also about building cooperation and strengthening community; about combining adequate private space and shared facilities.

The housing co-op grew out of the St. Peter Claver Free Trade Zone Women's Group in answer to the inadequate living conditions of its members. Most of the women involved live in tenement yard conditions – renting one room and sharing bathroom and kitchen with five or six other families. Right now the group is in the process of purchasing a number of those old-time properties (the ones with big houses and large, well-fruited land space). All the properties targeted are in the community of Waltham Park which surrounds the St. Peter Claver Church. And, they are all within walking distance of each other -a deliberate move based on the desire of the group to build community spirit among members.

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The properties will be renovated and upgraded to ensure that each member has two rooms and shares a kitchen and a bathroom with one other. In the case of the first property to be purchased, two rooms will be added to the existing ten rooms, three bathrooms and three kitchens. The property will then be ready to house six members and their families.

A female architect (Ann Hodges) is assisting in planning the space sensitively in keeping with the needs of the women and their children. Areas where small children can be seen at play by mothers as they work in the house; easy communication between units for security and efficient placing of cupboards, wash areas and so on, are just some of the ways of easing women's day-to-day chores.

The project hopes to house some 45 women and their families. Each member living in the units will pay a monthly 'housing charge' of between $120.00 and $150.00JMD, which will be used for maintenance, water bills and all the other costs of operating and maintaining the properties. It's called a 'housing charge' as opposed to rent because each woman is a co-op member and not a tenant.

Members are welcome to move in with their men, but only they (the women) can actually have occupancy rights: in other words, the occupancy agreement, which is like a lease, is in their name. In this way the women are guaranteed the right to stay in the unit even if she and her man split up. This move is deliberately designed to strengthen the traditionally weak control women have had in the area of property rights.

Funding for the project was sought in the form of grants from non-governmental agencies. This was then matched at a rate of 4-1 by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The co-op, as a result started out with $2 million for the project.

In the long-term, the group would like to expand its activities. So far, discussion on this possibility has centred on seeking further grants to enable other properties to be purchased and renovated. The feasibility of generating further funds from the housing charge surplus will also be examined.
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STRUCTURE OF THE CO-OP

The structure of the St. Peter Claver Women's Housing Co-operative is designed so that decision-making is kept in the hands of each individual member. Each member has one vote at the general members meetings - one way in which co-ops seek to ensure democratic control of their organisations.
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This housing co-operative is registered as a Cooperative Corporation, but it's not just about business. It's about people getting together to provide for themselves.
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Rules governing the units (devised by the co-op members)

• Housing Charge: This must be paid on time each month. Each member pays four months in advance, a device aimed at giving each woman time to recover if she should lose her job. If a member moves from her unit, this deposit is refunded. In the case of late payments, the co-op gives notice and starts proceedings through the Registrar of Co-operatives. The onus is on the individual to inform the executive that payment will be late, and why, in order for an arrangement to be worked out.‍
• Membership Dues: Each member pays a $1.00 membership fee and buys a minimum of five shares at $2.00 each. There is no interest on the fee or the shares but both - are refunded if a member leaves.‍
• House Rules: Each individual is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of her own unit and has collective responsibility for the communal areas including the yard. Each person is expected to own her own stove, but shares the electricity bills with the person with whom she shares kitchen and bathroom. It is expected that the members of each property will make other rules in keeping with their specific collective needs.

"I think I can agree with people and I'll have a better living condition. Where I'm living now, I have to go outside for water because there's hardly any water in the tap even up to 10 o'clock at night. ‍

REAPING THE BENEFITS:
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‍"I think I can agree with people and I'll have a better living condition. Where I'm living now, I have to go outside for water because there's hardly any water in the tap even up to 10 o'clock at night. We have one room and it's leaking badly since the hurricane. They have no intention of fixing it right now. I think we will have more privacy because at least I can lock myself in as I'll have two rooms. My son will be happy to have his own room too. And, it's cheaper. If I were to rent two rooms in this same area it would cost over $200.00."‍