Houses handed over to families in Vermont

Tears of joy were on display in Vermont last Thursday, when three persons from the Rillan Hill emergency shelter received keys to their new homes.

With a donation of EC$200,000 from the Czech Republic, three families from the Central Leeward area were able to receive brand new houses, following the destruction of their homes in the 2013 December floods.{{more}}

Moulton Mayers, honorary consul for the Czech Republic, assured recipients that they are receiving quality houses.

“As a seasoned architect practising in St Vincent and other places for over 30 years, I can assure you, the recipients, that these houses you are about to receive were built using best practices in the housing industry,” he said.

“These houses were structurally designed to withstand lateral loads of up to 50 miles per hour wind. You are moving into houses with structural integrity. These houses are far removed from the flood plains, so there is no fear for any reoccurrence.”

Additionally, the honorary consul encouraged persons to landscape the areas and to keep the area and the home in clean and beautiful conditions.

The three houses, which are situated on gently sloped land, were built near to a playing field and hard court, and have a view of the sea.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves pleaded with persons still in shelters to bear with the process.

“I want to tell those in the shelter and those still to get their houses, bear with me. Bear with us. They will come,” he said.

Gonsalves also gave an update on persons who still had to receive houses in that area, noting that six families are still in the Rillan Hill shelter, while an additional seven are living with family members.

“We have 13 persons, 13 families whom we have to build houses for because some of those, seven of those are not in the shelter. Their houses are completely destroyed, but they are living with family and so on and so forth. We are going to make sure that each of them gets their houses. Nine of them will get two-bedroom houses and four of them will get one-bedroom houses because of each individual situation,” the Prime Minister said.

According to Gonsalves, a total of 115 houses have been built throughout the country for flood victims: 51 on relocated sites, 44 on existing sites and 20 houses being substantially repaired. He added that more houses were under construction.

“I don’t want Christmas Eve to come on the first anniversary and that we have people who had lost their houses and don’t have a shelter,” he said.

The three houses cost over EC$242,000 with $200,000 being provided by the Czech Republic.

The recipients of the houses were Delroy and Hazel-Ann Jack, Gideon Adams and Janelle Haywood-Johnson.

The Gospel Hall Assembly, which was represented at the event by Albon and Clari Gilbert, raised funds which they would use to furnish the three houses that were built in Vermont.(BK)