The Tribune

LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

OVER 4,000 people have registered for the Disaster Reconstruction Authority’s Small Homes Repair programme in Abaco and Grand Bahama, with more than $4m spent by the authority so far on the initiative.

The figures were revealed by DRA’s managing director, Katherine Forbes-Smith, yesterday while she gave an update to The Tribune on the restoration efforts being made on the islands post-Hurricane Dorian.

Mrs Forbes-Smith said out of the 4,051 people who have registered for the programme, more than 2,000 applicants have been approved by the authority.

“The exact number is 4,051. Out of that number, 2,775 have been approved and basically, the breakdown for Abaco and Grand Bahama would be 802 for Abaco and 1,973 for Grand Bahama,” she told The Tribune.

“Now out of the 802 people who have been approved for Abaco, 597 have received assistance. That’s 74 percent and in Grand Bahama, 60 percent have received assistance.”

The former senator said she expects the number of applicants to increase in the coming days as more people return home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as it relates to Abaco.

“What’s happening in Abaco is a lot of people are still not back home because their homes are not repaired and they don’t have anywhere to live,” she said. “We’re seeing people come back to the island and so I think the numbers in Abaco will increase over the next couple weeks because people are now coming home.”

After Hurricane Dorian ravaged Abaco and Grand Bahama in early September, the government launched the Small Home Repair programme among other initiatives to assist with the recovery efforts on the islands.

The initiative, which was launched in February, allows for residents whose homes were damaged during the deadly storm to receive vouchers for building materials.

To further aid the recovery efforts on the island, Mrs Forbes-Smith said the DRA has also partnered with a number of non-government agencies, such as Global Empowerment and Church-by-the-Sea, to help people get their homes repaired.

“In Little Abaco, we had a programme where Church By the Sea, an NGO from Florida, bought all the materials to repair roofs for 260 homes in Abaco. The DRA paid for the labour for that programme so I believe the labour cost for that programme alone was a quarter a million dollars. “

She added: “Also, in Abaco there is an NGO called Global Empowerment. They also bought material to fix roofs in Cooper’s Town that were damaged and what we have going on now is a partnership in the community of Cooper’s Town where we have a contractor in the community who is actually providing the labour to get that material onto people’s homes.”

Noting that the DRA is committed to helping as many storm victims as possible, Mrs Forbes-Smith also said the DRA plans to launch two technical assistance vehicles that will allow personnel to enter local communities and provide assistance where needed.

This, she added, is also an effort to further the SHR programme’s outreach on the storm impacted islands.

Asked how much has been spent on the housing repair programme, she said: “So, the government’s, the DRA small home repair programme, to date, we’ve spent $4.2m, $1.4m in Abaco and $2.8m in Grand Bahama. Now, that’s where we are today as of July 13.”

In addition to helping victims purchase much-needed building supplies, Mrs Forbes-Smith also said officials are working “as quickly as they can” to provide temporary housing to displaced families in both Abaco and Grand Bahama.

She maintained work is ongoing to install 60 temporary housing units to assist residents in East Grand Bahama.

“That will be Sweeting’s Cay, McClean’s Town and High Rock,” she said. “In Grand Bahama, we got a donation of temporary houses from (a donor) and they have given us twenty, 20 by 20 container type housing and we’re putting them in Sweeting’s Cay.

“That’s going on now. They’ve arrived and we logistically got them to High Rock (and) we have to get them to Sweeting’s Cay...(so) in Grand Bahama, we have 20 modular homes and we have 40 domes.”

As it relates to Abaco, the DRA managing director said: “You are aware that 32 domes were erected in Spring City. They are all filled and accounted for. Right now in Abaco, we have a programme going on. We have a team in Abaco on the ground where the domes are being erected on the homeowner’s residences so that’s happening.

“In Abaco...it will be 130 homeowners that will receive a dome on their property.”