Kalinago Territory, Pointe Michel to get first batch of new houses

The Kalinago Territory and Pointe Michel will be receiving the first batch of new hurricane resistant homes under an agreement signed with a St. Lucian company, Housing Minister, Reginald Austrie has revealed.

He said that an agreement was signed with the company to build a thousand homes and the first 20 of these homes are ready to be shipped to Dominica.

“The location for those would be ten in Pointe Michel and ten in the Kalinago Territory,” he stated. “Obviously as we said earlier on these communities were heavily, heavily impacted and so we have to move to bring back some confidence to the community and to bring back some hope and some comfort to the residents of those communities.”

He stated that land has been identified for the homes and works are expected to begin soon.

“We are just awaiting the arrival of the containers and so and probably before Christmas, we may see work beginning…” he noted.

Austrie said the homes are hurricane-resistant and can withstand a category-5 hurricane.

“We believe they are pretty resistant and they can withstand the hurricane of Maria,” he remarked.

He said sites in Barbados where such homes were built were visited and “communities have been built, hospitals, supermarkets, restaurants, clinics have been built using that technology.”

“We are pretty satisfied based on the technical aspects and the literature on those home that they can withstand category-5 hurricanes,” Austrie said.