MONTEGO BAY, St James — Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness on Wednesday appealed to companies that have been focused on the higher end of the property market to help build low-income houses to meet the gaping need that has widened in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

He was speaking during a topping ceremony for tower one of the luxury residences at The Pinnacle, which has reached its 28th floor. Holness acknowledged the role of companies such as LCH Developments, which is behind The Pinnacle, and its affiliate contractors Brothers Concepts Solution Limited.

“I know the group that is behind this are very skilled contractors and that they do excellent work. This tower would have risen up in under a year. If you can do this, you can build thousands of low-income houses, as well,” the prime minister noted.

“Therefore, I use this platform to challenge you and to say the Government of Jamaica is willing to partner with you if you were to put some of your construction skills into providing low-income housing, which is absolutely necessary at this time, given the destruction wrought by Hurricane Melissa,” Holness continued.

An estimated 215,000 buildings sustained varying levels of damage from the Category 5 storm that battered sections of Jamaica on October 28. Holness stressed the need for speed as the nation rebuilds.

“As we enter into the reconstruction phase, I need contractors who can operate at scale and at pace. That’s how we’re going to bring the entire Jamaica together, that’s how luxury is going to help to bring people out of poverty, the intersection of our interests,” he insisted.

Stressing that the recovery effort remains his priority, Holness attempted to balance it with the significance of the milestone The Pinnacle was celebrating.

“We acknowledge the sensitivity that we can’t be celebrating luxury when there are thousands of households without roofs,” he lamented.

“So as I stand here celebrating this achievement, I want the rest of Jamaica that is without a roof to understand that they are not forgotten and that every hour of my day is spent trying to figure out how to get to those roofs quickly, effectively, in an affordable way, and in a sustainable way,” he said.

“My job is to bring the country together so that we can all have. It is not an easy task, but it is the only way for us to all progress as one people,” Holness added.

He also used the opportunity to highlight the work already being done in the area of tourism to provide housing for workers which shows the commitment and mindset of the government towards housing solutions.

“I want it to be in the consciousness of the public that the Government is going to be instrumental, deliberate, in terms of its housing policy to provide housing opportunities for persons working in the tourism sector,” the prime minister assured.

“We started that by insisting that all new developments must have a housing component to it. You would have seen that some of the new tourism products that are coming on the market, they have either dormitories or they have built units and those that are being constructed now, all of them have either building out-units for workers to acquire or to live in, in a rent mode facility, or dormitories are being built,” he explained.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness (second left) walks with chairman of LCH Developments Ziping Chen (second right); the company’s CEO Yangsen Li (left) and minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley during a tour of The Pinnacle, Wednesday.