By SYANN THOMPSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

sthompson@tribunemedia.net

THE government will launch its Small Homes Repairs Programme on February 10 – in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian – and eligible residents will be able to apply, said the managing director of the Bahamas Disaster Reconstruction Authority.

Kay Forbes-Smith told The Tribune that residents will be able to go online to register for the programme. “We have designed an online portal for registration, and we are encouraging persons who are seeking assistance for the home repair programme to register online. Of course, we know that there are a number of people for different reasons would not have access to the internet or have the equipment necessary to register, they can go to one of our offices and seek assistance. But we want all of the registration to take place online,” said Mrs Forbes-Smith.

Currently, it is estimated that more than 4,000 people with homes have been affected, said Mrs Forbes-Smith, who outlined eligibility for the programme. “The criteria is that you have to be a citizen of The Bahamas. You have to own the property. You would have lived at the damaged property on August 31, 2019; which we can confirm by utility bill or some other acceptable verification. If you have insurance, you cannot have access to the programme. And the property has to be located in Grand Bahama, Abaco, and the associated cays,” she said.

Mrs Forbes-Smith explained that a purchase order system will be used and can be used at vendors approved by the Disaster Authority. Ensuring that there are checks and balances, the authority will carry out inspections. “What we plan to do is put a purchase order system in place where you would go to one of the approved vendors of the Disaster Authority, you would get an invoice for 50 percent of the value of what we are going to give you. The reason for that is because we want to be able at the end of the day after residents would have put the first 50 percent into their home, we will send an inspector out to make sure that the funds were spent towards that and that it was done properly. Once our inspector comes back and says yes and they see that the work is done and done properly, then we will issue the other 50 percent,” said Mrs Forbes-Smith.

Once they are approved, residents will be issued purchase orders in four different categories. “We want to make sure that residents are actually getting their home repairs done before the next hurricane season begins. So, our process is going to be this, first of all your house would have had to been assessed by the Ministry of Works or, in the city of Freeport, it would be the Grand Bahama Port Authority. We have four categories – if you have minimal damage, you can get up to $2,500 dollars, for medium is $5,000, major is $7,500 and if your house has been totally destroyed it’s $10,000. They can use the purchase orders for a combination of labour, material or both,” said Mrs Forbes-Smith.

The authority is including not only single residences, but also duplexes and triplexes. Mrs Forbes-Smith explained that this was necessary for several reasons. She said: “Whilst all of the residences have to be owner-occupied, we are not only including single residences, we are including duplexes and triplexes. The reason we decided to include duplexes and triplexes is we found that we had persons who own a duplex, for example and they live on one side of their duplex or they live in one of the triplex units. In order to get power to their duplex or triplex, they need to actually repair their entire complex because the power company would not restore power if it is not fully repaired. However, those owning a 30-complex apartment building, etc, will not be included.”