Social Development Minister, Carvin Malone made this announcement in a recent session in the House of Assembly.

Malone approximated the number of homes that were already signed for the repairs and revealed that more households are set to be added to the list in short order.

“We have signed over 30 for the home repair programme that we are going to bring out come January, some of them are going to start very early January, some in February,” the minister said.

He added: “We started out the programme requiring up to $45 million. We got some, we made use of it, and we stretched it as best as we could. We have others we signed and we’re going to be signing others as we go.”

More requests than available funds

Minister Malone further said the incoming requests to have homes repaired have been outweighing the available finances.

This has resulted in the government developing other criteria to ensure that persons who need assistance are prioritised.

“There are more requests than there is money so there were criteria that had to be set. And though difficult, the fact is that there are certain criteria that I as minister cannot violate. They must meet the actual specific criteria,” he explained.

“So we ask those persons who have been damaged as a result of the hurricane and some of the persons when the pandemic hit, it really dealt a crippling blow because whatever monies there were beginning to amass they actually suffered as a result of it,” Malone further said.

In August 2019, Malone revealed that issues surrounding insufficient funds and lack of land ownership were the main reasons why some persons within the territory were still living in domes almost two years following the 2017 hurricanes.