By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

GOVERNMENT officials are investigating reports that emergency dome houses on Abaco are being used as brothels.

News of the use of the structures for prostitution came just 24 hours after The Tribune revealed that some families allocated domes in the wake of Hurricane Dorian have been sub-letting them to pocket the rent money.

Disaster Reconstruction Authority executive chairman Alex Storr said yesterday the authority will take action against those responsible for mismanaging and using dome structures, purchased by  government, for illicit purposes.

Yesterday, the DRA chairman confirmed the reports of the domes being used as brothels.  “I have had reports of illegal activity along that line and other things going on,” he said, “and so, we’re investigating all of that and whatever happens, we will make sure that we will take the appropriate actions based on the law.”

 Asked how long illegal activity has been happening in the dome city, the DRA chairman replied: “(It) could be a matter of months, but let me say this, we have teams working. There’s a joint taskforce based with several agencies and once we go in, we’re going to do a proper assessment of what’s going on and bring a proper resolution to it.”

 On Monday, Mr Storr told The Tribune some residents on the island were renting the domes for monetary gain.

 He said he was alerted to the situation during his first visit to the island and subsequently ordered an investigation, which confirmed the reports.

 The domes in question are being housed in Spring City, Abaco.

 Some 34 structures were erected in the community to assist residents with temporary housing after Hurricane Dorian.

 According to one area resident, many of the people living in the domes now are renting them out.

 “In dome city, they have illegal people living there,” the Abaconian claimed. “Either they’re Jamaicans or of Spanish descent and some of them are prostitutes and then some of them are renting the domes to other people.

 “That is a major problem there. A lot of them have their houses and they’re either renting the house and staying in the dome or they move back in their house and they’re renting the dome and the DRA is fully aware of it and, like they said, the time is winding down because they cost the government.”

 This comes as the authority is seeking to find alternative housing for Abaco residents who are still living in the domes. 

 One former tenant, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was told to hand the keys for his dome over to DRA officials at the end of the week, noting that repairs to his home had already ben completed.

 However, The Tribune understands other dome dwellers who have yet to have their homes rebuilt or repaired were given until the end of August.

 “Last week, someone from housing was on the island and everybody who had a home in Spring City that was not finished, they promised to give residents some help,” the Abaco resident added.

 Yesterday, Mr Storr maintained that officials want to transition dome dwellers into permanent homes “as soon as possible.”

 “The government, (based on) instructions from the Prime Minister, is trying to work on a programme to try and get those persons out of the domes as soon as possible, especially with the impending hurricane season,” he said yesterday.

  “The domes are not safe and even if they are evacuated in cases of a storm, their belongings inside those domes will not be safe and so we’re working to have a situation that won’t create extra hardship on the residents, but would put them in a better circumstance.” 

 Hurricane Dorian hit Abaco on September 1, 2019 as a Category 5 hurricane before barreling toward Grand Bahama.

 The storm left thousands of homes either destroyed or damaged and hundreds of residents displaced.

 To assist with rebuilding efforts, the Minnis administration spent more than $6m on nearly 200 domes that were supposed to be used as temporary housing for Abaco and Grand Bahama residents after Hurricane Dorian.

 However, DRA officials have raised concerns about the previous administration’s dome project, citing structural issues among other things 

 “Every aspect of this dome project has had problems and that’s why the government is working as quickly as possible to bring a close to it,” said Mr Storr. 

 According to the DRA chairman, the agency wants to find another purpose for the housing structures.