THE occupants of 1,500 homes in four flood-prone areas are to be relocated at an initial cost of some $300 million, Housing Minister Horace Chang told the House yesterday.

The four communities are Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine; Portland Cottage and Rocky Point, Clarendon; and Duhaney Pen, St Thomas – which all took a battering from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Dean in August this year.

Dr Chang said that Caribbean Terrace, just outside of Harbour View in East Rural St Andrew, was also under consideration for relocation, but due to projected costs of approximately $1.3 billion to replace 69 homes in that area, it has been delayed.

“.My ministry is advanced in the process of identifying lands to which these communities will be relocated,” Dr Chang told parliamentarians.

He said that on the new sites, which he hoped would be operating within two weeks, the ministry, associated agencies and the engineering regiment of the Jamaica Defence Force would be establishing basic infrastructure, including primary roads, water and electricity for serviced lots.

“We are currently examining a number of housing solutions for construction on these lots, and will be making a decision on this shortly,” he said.

Based on the budgetary support allocated for this category of households, assistance in terms of construction materials and cash grants will be given to each relocated household to make a start on a new house, said the minister.

The minister promised the House an update on the programme in two weeks.

The House was also updated on the Hurricane Dean Recovery Programme by Labour Minister Pearnel Charles, who said further verification of the preliminary list of persons whose homes were damaged was being done to ensure elimination of duplications and other errors.

Charles said that as part of the process, the preliminary listings have been distributed to members of parliament for review and feedback by this Friday.

“As soon as the verification process is completed, the distribution of benefits for housing reconstruction will commence,” Charles said.

He said that the parishes which suffered the worst damage from the hurricane – St Thomas, St Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon and St Catherine – would benefit in the first phase. The number of beneficiaries in this phase will be approximately 36,000, accounting for 70 per cent of the number of households affected by the hurricane.

Benefits will include cash grants, materials and technical support to undertake repairs.

A meeting is scheduled for this morning at the Liguanea Club, New Kingston, at which representatives of the labour ministry, MPs, ministers fraternal and parish disaster committee chairmen from the worst affected parishes will discuss the procedures for the distribution of benefits.