The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

TWO weeks before the hurricane season starts, a frustrated resident said she is still waiting for her leaking roof to be repaired, 18 months after the Urban Renewal Commission approved her request.

Linda Fitzgerald, 63, a resident of the Mount Moriah constituency, said the Urban Renewal Commission approved her to get repairs in January 2022

“I went there last year and I kept going back. I kept calling and they kept telling me they working on it, they working on this, they working on that. But it isn’t so,” she said.

“I stopped going,” she added. “I didn’t go back this year because I got tired from last year.”

Last year, the Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development and the Urban Renewal Commission revamped the small home repairs initiative. The programme repairs homes in urgent need of restoration.

“It’s just awful, awful, awful, I’ve seen people apply after me and they have already gotten their roof fixed,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

“For a single parent it’s bad and I don’t know for what reason. It takes a whole year and four to five months.”

Ms Fitzgerald said as a single mother, she is unable to fully bear the burden of the repair cost.

“It’s the roof that’s damaged and then the birds are eating it out and I have a little crack inside,” she said. “I pray I could get some money and try and patch up the roof myself. It isn’t like I didn’t try. I asked, but I’m not getting any help. I was so surprised when things didn’t get done.”

Richard Johnson, vice chairman of the Free National Movement, protested the failure to fix the woman’s roof outside the Urban Renewal Commission’s building yesterday.

“I’m calling on the permanent secretary of this ministry, directly responsible for Urban Renewal, to do her job,” he said. “If she can’t do it, then the prime minister needs to move her.”

Stephen Dean, chairman of the Urban Renewal Commission, said he met with officials yesterday to understand the issue, but couldn’t comment further.

Last month, State Minister of Social Services and Urban Development Lisa Rahming said officials were working to repair homes before the hurricane season.

She said repairs for each home were, on average, valued at $15,000.

She said there had been many applications.