More housing for hospitality sector employees
Holness says TEF will partner on new social-development programme
Published:Tuesday | January 23, 2024 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the Government will be forging a partnership between the New Social Housing programme and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) to provide housing solutions for hospitality workers living in substandard conditions.
Holness made the announcement on Saturday at the launch and groundbreaking ceremony for the $350 million investment The Pinnacle in Reading, St James.
“Already, the minister of tourism (Edmund Bartlett) and myself have agreed that some of the tourism -enhancement revenues will partner with our new social housing programme to provide housing solutions for those persons working in the hospitality sector who have below-standard housing,” Holness said.
Lands on which to facilitate the construction of social housing for hospitality workers, the prime minister said, have been identified, but he didn’t immediately reveal the locations.
“We have given directives to HAJ (Housing Agency of Jamaica) and the NHT (National Housing Trust), and they have secured lands and are about to secure more in areas that have a high concentration of tourism enterprises. So in the very near future, we will be coming to market with housing solutions specifically targeted to tourist workers,” Holness announced.
He told business leaders in Montego Bay that with the level of investment being made in The Pinnacle development, there would be greater need for more workers and housing units, for which the Government is mindful and prepared to play its role by directly investing in social-housing units.
LUXURY LIVING
The Pinnacle is a luxury private community that is being developed on the Montego Bay Marine Reserve consisting of four separate towers, each with 28 storeys and a panoramic view.
The development will also feature 15 luxury villas, sports and leisure facilities, shopping, restaurants, and a private residents club designed by Issia Madden, a Montego Bay-based architect.
“You will need more tourist workers, and they will need places to live, and it must be our objective that the development of the country must always be mindful that as we seek to develop more luxury ... we must lift the standard for all Jamaicans,” Holness noted.
At the commencement of the 2024 calendar year, Holness, in his New Year message, updated the country on the commitments made by several hotel developers to building housing solutions for their workers.
He said RCD Hotels, being developed in Montego Bay, the Bahia Principe in St Ann, and Princes Resorts in Hanover are among the major hotel groups that have committed to constructing over 2,000 residential dwellings.
Following that update, the prime minister announced that his government would be increasing the budgetary allocation for the social-housing programme.
“We are targeting to do more, at minimum 500 new social-housing units this year, meaning (the) 2024–2025 financial year,” the prime minister announced while in Lima, St James, while presenting a one-bedroom unit under the social-housing project earlier this month.