Rochelle Channer (32), from Jamaica, is completing a doctorate in urban and regional planning at Florida State University. Her study is an institutional and experimental analysis of select housing policies in Jamaica, focused on decolonization and transformative planning.
Rochelle aims to make the housing market transparent for the people most challenged by the current system, and to tackle colonial structures that impact how community planning and real estate are practiced, most often leading to the dispossession and displacement of women and children.
Rochelle’s goal is to create a non-profit housing institute with branches across Jamaica, offering specialized supportive housing services, counseling, and financial training.
Rochelle is addressing concrete public policy shortfalls that have a disproportionate impact on women and children. “Without understanding the old laws and interacting policies impacting our behaviours, we cannot make a true change,” she says.
