‘Nominal’ fee plan for dome families

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE GOVERNMENT is considering charging dome city tenants a “nominal” fee for rent after the expiration of a free period, revealed John-Michael Clarke, chairman of the government’s Disaster Relief and Reconstruction Committee yesterday.

However, officials have not yet decided on the fee or how long the free period will last. The first shipment of domes will arrive in Abaco on November 14, Mr Clarke said.

“The idea behind the domes, and we’re giving consideration to this, is there will be a free period,” Mr Clarke said as a guest on Guardian Radio talk show The Revolution with host Juan McCartney.

“That free period has not been set in stone and after the free period there will be a nominal charge for being in the domes. In any event, the life span for the dome city is 24 months. After 24 months, those domes are going to start to come down.”

He said people who want to live in these domes should register with the Ministry of Social Services, which is handling allocation.

The Minnis administration is also considering how it can assist homeowners who lost homes when Hurricane Dorian devastated Abaco and Grand Bahama.

However, homeowners are only able to access up to $10,000 in assistance.

He said: “The government’s position is that the government is not rebuilding homes. So if your home was totally destroyed at present the position is the government is not providing a full house.

“So if your $100,000 or $250,000 house is totally destroyed the government is not replacing that house.

“In areas like Sweeting’s Cay and those remote settlements, of course you know that position is going to be met with some difficulty because what that means now is the level of assistance you can access is limited to $10,000.

“So between what it costs to get you a residence and the level of assistance you qualify for, we are going to have to come up with a solution to remedy that gap.

“Now the government is investigating, knowing that that gap exists. We’ve had discussions. We started discussions about how we could remedy that gap.

“We are thinking about what alternatives can be possible whether or not we tie the level of assistance the government is providing to match that with non-governmental organisation assistance,” he also said. “Whether the government has resources or can find resources.”

He noted that no entity is funding the Bahamas but only offering financing at a time when the government is financially stretched.

Last week Iram Lewis, minister of state for disaster preparedness, management and reconstruction, said the majority of the 250 domes were to be in Abaco on Friday, October 25.

He said there was still no definitive date for the completion of the $6.4m temporary dome city, but the shell of each structure will take roughly four to six hours to construct.

Mr Lewis said at the time that teams have been working around the clock to ensure the drainage system is in place to handle waste that will be generated once the city is complete.

Comments

ohdrap4 says...

Make sure the fee is less than the 37.50 a week they charge at the straw market.

Many will not pay rent.

The domes will not cone down. Lawyers have alreasy been called.

Posted 30 October 2019, 7:15 a.m. Suggest removal

yeahyasee says...

LOL

Posted 30 October 2019, 11:02 a.m. Suggest removal

The_Oracle says...

Hobbling from stop gap to Stop gap is no way to respond to a disaster.
A comprehensive plan easily followed seems beyond Government capabilities,
but should be one hundred fold easier given the number of NGO's that have flooded in with expertise and resources post Dorian. NEMA is not a Plan: NEMA is an empty shell or structure praying to be filled with competency when needed.
This is not our first nor last Hurricane, and although destruction is at unprecedented levels
The basic response should be the same, scaled to the severity.

Posted 30 October 2019, 8:46 a.m. Suggest removal

joeblow says...

For the future of this country, lets just hope this same government is not in power when the next big one hits!

Posted 30 October 2019, 10:16 a.m. Suggest removal

Well_mudda_take_sic says...

The photo to the above article is now one of the most viewed photos on social media in Northern Haiti and the human traffickers there are already telling their many thousands of potential customers that the Minnis-led Bahamas Government is building for illegal Haitian aliens a brand new city in Central Abaco called "Ville du Dôme". I kid you not!

Posted 30 October 2019, 10:25 a.m. Suggest removal

jamaicaproud says...

We jumaicans want our share of the sphere. LOL..

Someone should go to prison for creating a ready-made Spherical ghetto.
instead of engaging the unemployed and disaffected youth to learn the building trade, and unemployed craftsmen to jumpstart the economy. Instead of encouraging "Real" Bahamians to move to Abaco to scale up and boost the economy, someone came up with this StarTrek boondoggle.

Posted 30 October 2019, 12:11 p.m. Suggest removal

TalRussell says...

**Seriously?**
In any event, the life span for that dome city be's 24 months. After 24 months, those domes **are going to start to come down,** or so Imperialists "noting goin be free Abacoians" has now revealed ...... but not so fast Imperialist appointee John-Michael - **cause by the time 24 months latest Abaco shantytown does rolls by the Comrade King's Counsel Frederick be recovered sufficiently to be back up on he feet stand front judge,** yes, no ....

Posted 30 October 2019, 1:44 p.m. Suggest removal

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