CARITAS SHELTER PROJECT

Restoring The Community

As part of Caritas Antilles' larger response to Hurricane Dorian, Caritas is supporting home repairs for households who sustained minor to moderate damage and has assisted nearly 150 households to date. Assistance typically includes the removal and replacement of damaged sheet rock, mold remediation, minor patching of damaged roofs, and ensuring a functioning bathroom and a functioning kitchen sink.  New sheetrock is hung to ensure a minimal standard of privacy and dignity, typically enclosing the bathroom and one bedroom.  To ensure quality and economic assistance, all repairs are conducted by licensed, local contractors.

Households are selected according to vulnerability criteria, with preference given to lower income households, the elderly, single parent households, homes with young children, the disabled, and the uninsured. During our assessment visits households are asked about their own capacity for self-recovery. In cases where members of the family have the skills to do work themselves, we have at times offered only a donation of materials (sheet rock) as assistance, to ensure that we are able to reach as many homes as possible within our funding.  

Caritas began offering 'safe and dignified shelter' assistance in the Hudson Estates, Heritage, and Arden Forest neighborhoods. Since then, we have expanded to many other areas in Grand Bahama. Our staff conduct house by house assessments within these neighborhoods and select households that fit our scope of work, beneficiary criteria, and desire the assistance. An accountability phone number is in operation for beneficiaries to report any concerns, and is also left at houses so families who are not present when assessments are done can be in touch.

Caritas is also proud to participate in the reconstruction efforts for the extensively damaged areas in East Grand Bahama.  This has included collaboration with community leaders, the Ministry of Public Works, Department of Social Services, and BTVI on the construction of several hurricane-resilient pilot houses, which would be used as models for the community. We are happy to announce that our model home is presently being constructed in East Grand Bahama.