The government plans to establish a dedicated supply of emergency and transitional housing for families displaced by fires and other crises, Housing Minister Chris Gibbs said on Monday.
High-density housing, particularly in the urban corridor, makes communities especially vulnerable to fires that affect multiple homes. Gibbs said, Recent fires on Wellington Street and Chapman Lane point to the need for planning rather than a scramble for accommodation, he added.
“As an urban MP, I could tell you that I personally, and this is outside of being the Minister of Housing, I personally have had to attend to many of these fires,” said Gibbs. “So we know that this happens frequently, hence the need for emergency housing or transitional housing.”
The ministry has had to seek temporary accommodation from the National Housing Corporation’s housing estates, an approach which has made it difficult to meet the needs of displaced citizens, he said.
Cabinet has already mandated the ministry to establish a formal policy and expand available accommodation, he said.
One problem the policy aims to address is that temporary placements are becoming long-term arrangements because alternatives are scarce. Gibbs explained that emergency housing is intended to provide temporary accommodation while agencies such as the Rural Development Commission help families rebuild their homes or find permanent accommodation.
“One thing that has happened in the past is that when you place families into housing, it’s not really—you can’t consider emergency housing because they end up staying there, in a lot of instances, long term.
“So emergency housing, classic emergency housing, is a transitional housing so that you can then buy yourself time to then say: ‘Reconstruct their house.”
While Barbados has largely been spared catastrophic hurricane damage, fires remain a constant threat, prompting the Ministry of Housing to work with the Department of Emergency Services, the Barbados Fire Service and the Ministry of People Empowerment to reduce fire risks and address behaviour that contributes to outbreaks.
“When I hear the news about a fire somewhere, even today, seeing that there’s a fire that just occurred… so it’s a regular occurrence,” the housing minister said. “So obviously, you know, we, we know that it happens a lot, and we’re trying our best to work through the DEO and the fire service to be able to help people to, you know, decrease the fire risk.”
The ministry also receives frequent requests for shelter assistance for other reasons, including tenant evictions. Gibbs could not immediately provide the exact number of people seeking assistance but said the ministry was not overburdened by calls for help.
“I wouldn’t exactly use the words overwhelmed,” Gibbs said when asked about the volume of assistance requests. “I would say that it … is frequent, and there could be a number of other reasons as well, besides things… evictions … where people are being evicted and quite frequently the first people to reach out to is us.”
When contacted, officials from the Social Empowerment Agency also could not provide the information.
Despite limited resources, Gibbs said the government remained committed to making the housing project a priority to ensure vulnerable citizens have accommodation when they need it.
The ministry, he said, continues to stretch available funding by working closely with local agencies and members of parliament. Its aim is to establish a permanent housing supply and end the scramble for units.
“The prime minister feels very strongly about this,” Gibbs said. “It’s something that she always tells me all the time, you know, she’s not gonna let up on us, and we have to execute, and we have to do it for the people because it’s something in our country that we see all the time.”
(RR)
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