The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

THE shelters accommodating displaced Hurricane Dorian evacuees will remain open until the new year, according to Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell.

Speaking outside Cabinet, Mr Campbell said it is difficult to give a definitive timeline as to when the shelters will be decommissioned because he's not the sole person responsible for the facilities. He had previously said the two remaining shelters on New Providence would close by the end of the year.

He said: "So you would appreciate that this is a multi-agency project. I'm manning the shelters. Other agencies are helping to prepare for the transition. So that was my desire and I continue to work daily along with my team, offering alternatives to evacuees. "Those who qualify we are offering rental assistance that might enable them to get some form of independence to go on their own. But as long as they determine they aren't able to go any place else, then the government has a duty to live up to the commitment it made and to continue to shelter them."

Mr Campbell said he is unable to give a figure to indicate how much the government is paying to accommodate the evacuees. He said: "...It wasn't a figure the government would have budgeted for. It isn't anything that we anticipated and so the sooner we can stop that particular line of spending, we as the government would be pleased.

"Like I would have indicated, personally, I was hoping that we would have done that before the Christmas. We continue to hope, and the numbers are decreasing, so persons are taking the offer to receive the rental assistance and go into private accommodations."

The minister also said he is unaware of how many undocumented migrants are staying in the shelters. "I really don't know because in the aftermath of the hurricane, we gave assistance from a humanitarian point of view. And so that was not an issue for me as a minister," he said. "That was not an issue for the social workers. I'm sure that since then there's been some categorization, but I personally can't give the number. "

When contacted, Department of Social Services Deputy Director Kim Sawyer told The Tribune yesterday: "As of Sunday, 487 evacuees still reside on two designated sites in New Providence: 373 at the Kendal GL Isaacs Gymnasium and three tents, and 114 at the Bahamas Academy Gymnasium."