Shipment of building materials arrives to assist poor and needy

A shipment of building materials, valued at $4.5 million, recently arrived in St Vincent and the Grenadines from the Jamaican company Tankweld.

At the handing over ceremony at Port Kingstown on September 24, Minister of Housing Montgomery Daniel said the Government wants to ensure that housing is available and affordable.{{more}}

“Together with that, is the Lives to Live programme, which has become a very interesting and important activity in our Ministry,” Daniel stated.

Daniel said the shipment of materials will assist in carrying forward this programme, which assists the poor and needy with their housing needs; however, to do this, they need to have building materials at their disposal.

Daniel said the Government’s housing programme and the Lives to Live programme were both stalled because of the fire which engulfed the main storage room at the Public Works compound at Arnos Vale on January 7, 2016.

He said because of the fire, 90 projects were on hold and 240 persons who would have benefited from the Lives to Live programme were not able to receive much needed building materials.

Daniel, however, guaranteed that by year end the outstanding 90 projects will be completed.

“With the coming on stream now of these materials, by next week we will be certainly up and running with all of our programmes,” he indicated.

The Housing minister noted that persons who are holders of vouchers should return them to the Ministry of Housing for an assessment to be done to speed up the delivery process.

This is the fourth time, at least, that the Government has sourced building material from Tankweld, the first shipment having been ordered in the wake of the December 2013 floods. A subsequent shipment was received in December 2014 and another order approved in June 2015. (CM)