The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER months of being open to accommodate displaced Hurricane Dorian victims, all shelters in New Providence have now been officially deactivated.

Deputy Director of Social Services Kim Sawyer, confirming the news to The Tribune yesterday, said the Poinciana Inn on Bernard Road – which served as a transitional home for affected families – discontinued its operations on June 30. Bahamas Academy’s auditorium on Wulff Road, she added, has also since been deactivated.

“Both of those shelters were deactivated,” she told The Tribune. “Poinciana Inn deactivated from the 30th of June. But I cannot say the exact date of Bahamas Academy but we don’t have any evacuees that we are housing at any shelter now.”

The move comes nearly a year after the monster storm ripped through Abaco and Grand Bahama, flattening homes and businesses while displacing thousands of residents.

Following the passage of Hurricane Dorian in early September, the ministry of Social Services and its partners activated several shelters across the country, which originally housed more than 2,000 people. Most of them were at Kendal G L Isaacs Gymnasium.

The end of 2019 was originally the aim for the shelters to be closed, however the deadline was extended to accommodate those with nowhere else to go and also, as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions.

In June, Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell estimated that 70 people were still living in the two remaining shelters in the capital. At the time, he told reporters that officials were working to have those victims transitioned into homes elsewhere.

“Here in New Providence, last count I think we had 20 or less at the Poinciana (Inn). I think I gave instructions to give those 20 a deadline. We have 50 or less in Bahamas Academy. If need be, we may combine the two but our ultimate objective is to have those persons transitioned,” he said.

Yesterday Ms Sawyer said many of the evacuees have since returned to Abaco. Others, she said, are living in communities throughout New Providence and still receiving assistance from the government agency.

“I can’t give you any numbers but I know some of them we have on a rental assistance programme and then some had went on the food programme,” she said.

Next Tuesday will mark the country’s one-year anniversary since the deadly Category Five storm made landfall.