Gov’t Targets Informal Settlements with New Housing Initiative for Tourism Workers

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Social Housing for Tourism Workers Programme is a strategic measure to prevent the emergence of informal settlements near hotels and resorts as Jamaica’s hospitality sector continues to grow.

“What we are doing is putting in place… resources to build housing for persons who are working in the tourism industry but whose income would not bring them to the point where they could qualify to purchase a home on the open market or even qualify for a mortgage,” he said.

The initiative, which is expected to be launched soon, will serve as an additional component of the Government’s New Social Housing Programme (NSHP).

It aims to deliver housing solutions for individuals employed in the tourism sector, leveraging resources from the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and the Consolidated Fund.

Dr. Holness was speaking during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Style Hut, Port Morant, St. Thomas, on Thursday (June 19), where a new two-bedroom home was handed over to NSHP beneficiary, Shirley Bennett.

He explained that as Jamaica’s tourism industry began to expand rapidly, workers naturally followed the growth.

However, the absence of formal housing arrangements for employees led to the emergence of informal settlements near hotel and resort developments.

“So, you would notice that right alongside the hotel strips, just across the road, would be developments that are informal, because the people live in the informal communities and then go to work in the lovely hotels,” the Prime Minister said.

Dr. Holness emphasised, however, that a shift in approach is necessary – prompting the expansion of the NSHP to directly benefit workers in the tourism sector.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is championing the NSHP as a “well-established, well-run” initiative, designed to uplift the most vulnerable members of society.

“Whoever we select as the beneficiary, people will look on and say, ‘I wish it were me,’ but they would also say, ‘I am happy that you got it, because your circumstances were such that you deserve it’. That is what we have done here under the New Social Housing Programme,” Dr. Holness said.

The NSHP is implemented through the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme.

Benefits are currently delivered through three core modalities – the provision of indigent housing across all 63 constituencies; the relocation of vulnerable communities facing imminent risk; and the upgrading of tenement yards, commonly referred to as ‘big yards’.