The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

URBAN Renewal Co-Chair Algernon Allen on Monday said repairs to the home of a World War II veteran seemingly forgotten during a previous cycle of the Small Homes Repair programme has been delayed due to funds being “shifted” towards hurricane relief efforts.

Mr Allen told The Tribune that the funding which “ordinarily would have already been realised” for the repairs at the home of 90-year-old Royal Air Force veteran Ivan Simeon Rolle has instead been directed towards providing relief for individuals in the southeast Bahamas still suffering from the passage of Hurricane Joaquin in October.

He said officials are awaiting the dispensation of those funds so that Urban Renewal can “make some new interventions” in a few homes – Mr Rolle’s included — which “did not meet the mark.”

In early November, The Tribune was alerted by Mr Rolle’s daughter, Sherice Rolle, of her father’s squalid living conditions. She said that the Urban Renewal Commission began repairs in April of last year on her father’s rundown home located at Toote Shop Corner in Centreville, but had not returned to finish much needed renovations on the old structure.

According to Ms Rolle, months after Urban Renewal promised to return to complete renovations, there had been no action despite her direct appeals to the organisation and to area MP, Prime Minister Perry Christie.

She outlined the level of assistance given by Urban Renewal as an unfortunate symbol of how some veterans are treated in this country.

When The Tribune later informed Mr Allen of Mr Rolle’s living conditions, he subsequently pledged that an extra $10,000 worth of repairs would be invested in making the “necessary repairs to alleviate some of the suffering of the distinguished veteran of the wars”.

Last year, Mr Allen also said Urban Renewal would also ensure that the “most competent of contractors” were made available to complete the repairs.

When questioned for an update on Monday, however, Mr Allen said: “The national disaster that afflicted our brothers to the southeast has caused a lot of funding which ordinarily would have already been realised for this small home repair to be shifted to deal with simply putting roofs or any source of comfort over the heads of our brothers and sisters.

“And so we await along with the rest of the country, funding which had to be shifted into that hurricane relief effort to perhaps be refocused in a smaller way in some of the other areas of need in the country.”

He added: “In respect to the home, we are awaiting the dispensation of the funding for the third phase. It arrived about a week ago, and that is where we will be able to make some new interventions in a few homes which did not meet the mark.”

Mr Rolle served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Today, he lives with Ms Rolle and two of his grandchildren in a dilapidated structure that was first constructed in 1948.