HERDS of goats are still the only occupants of several one-room houses built with hurricane relief funds for residents of Portland Cottage in South Clarendon, following the devastation wreaked on that community by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004.

Many of those who received the houses have either sold them since — for up to $400,000 in at least one instance — rented them for between $3,000 to $6,000 per month, or have simply abandoned them.

International aid agencies and local companies had rallied to Jamaica’s assistance, offering money and technical assistance after Ivan’s storm surges took seven lives and nearly wiped out the heavily populated community on the island’s south coast.

Some money was used to build units on 70 acres of land for the relocation of approximately 200 residents to a housing development named Shearer Heights after the late member of parliament and prime minister, Hugh Shearer.

The Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), the body set up by the Government to co-ordinate the reconstruction effort, partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to build 93 one-room units in Portland Cottage and neighbouring Rocky Point, while the ONR built 114 two-room units.

The scheme, which sits on a hill, has beautifully paved streets and metal utility poles, while the houses, though small, are equipped with flush toilets, an improvement for some on what they occupied before Ivan.

But a visit to the community on Thursday revealed that many of the houses are still unoccupied, two years after the Sunday Observer first highlighted the situation. The unoccupied houses have all been stripped of doors, windows and bathroom fixtures and are sometimes used as goat sheds when heavy rains threaten.

“People in the other community down the bottom, when them hear say storm ah come dem come lock up dem goats in dem,” one resident told the Sunday Observer.

Following the original expose´ in this paper, the resident said some owners sent persons to occupy the units for fear that they would be taken away. However, when it became clear that the authorities were not about to act, some of the houses were again abandoned.

There are fewer empty houses since the last visit, however the Sunday Observer was told that the majority of them are now occupied by renters. But even as the empty houses sit in yards with overgrown shrubs, there are still several persons, who, having lost everything in the hurricane, are forced to rent the houses from persons who never needed them in the first place.

Some residents have cited the size of the tiny dwellings as one reason why more persons have abandoned them. Others believe it is the lack of piped water into the scheme which has kept owners away. But this excuse is unacceptible among those who would have been grateful to receive one of the units.

“Some people get house at the neighbouring Boardville and also up here at Shearer Heights. So some sell dem, rent dem or just have some family member living there,” said one man. He added further, “One girl live in one, sell one and have one in Boardville right now.”

Some residents maintained that the selection process was unfair as some single persons received two-room units, while families of up to six members were given tiny one-room structures.

One such person is Patrick Ramsey, who blushed with embarrassment as he explained how tight a fit it has been for him, his wife and three children, ages nine, 10, and 18.

Ramsey, who lost his three-bedroom house during Ivan, said he did not relocate to Shearer Heights until a few years later since he could not envision how his family would fit.

But as Hurricane Dean threatened the island in August of 2007, fears that the dwelling he had rebuilt out of board would not withstand the winds, Ramsey said he was left with no choice but to move into the single room that same day.

Although the zinc roof leaks and the sewer system is not adequate for the community, Ramsey hopes to one day receive a title for the only place he has to call home.

“The sewer system badly need to sort out because me buy bleach more than me buy drinking water because the stench coming up in the bath is unbearable,” he said of the miniscule bathroom.

Ramsey also said he has been forced to live without electricity, since he cannot afford to pay the $76,000 he was back-billed by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

According to Ramsey, the company installed a meter to his premises in February of 2007, but he did not move into the house until August of that year.

“I wasn’t here using the electricity, but they say I have to pay a back bill of $76,000, and I don’t have it,” he said.

This, as he struggles to find the $1,200 twice weekly to fill a 400 gallon plastic tank, which is the only source of water.

While he cannot afford to expand his house like his neighbour across the street, Ramsey said he would love to see the empty houses refurbished and occupied, the lots bushed and a boundary wall built to enclose the scheme.

“I would like to see the place fix up and look good and the people come live in the house dem because it is a nice place,” he added.

At least one of the abandoned houses on his street will be occupied soon as the owner, Clive Vincent, has finally decided to take possession of the property.

Vincent, who was clearing overgrowth on the property, said he was only just taking possession of the house because it was too small for his family of four when he first got it.

“But now that them grow up I fixing it up for my son,” he told the Sunday Observer.

But that might be easier said than done as he also has to find thousands of dollars to replace windows, doors, and bathroom fixtures after vandals struck.

“The people dem wicked because look at how them t’ief out everything from the house. Even the toilet bowl dem teck out and bruk it up lef’ outside,” he said.

But not everyone will have the option of taking possession of the houses on their timetable, as councillor of the Rocky Point division Winston Maragh said an audit is being done to determine who are the current occupants of the houses. He said he is awaiting someone from the now-defunct ONR who has promised to do a walk-through of the community.

“This lady from the ONR is to come out here for the last three years and last Saturday she promised to come and she just did not turn up,” Maragh said, explaining that the plan is to go house to house to determine who the original owners are.

“If they can’t show the letter they received, it means these houses will be taken and given to those who are still living in the no-build zone,” he said. He added that many persons are still living in the storm surge zone, as not everyone could have been relocated to Shearer Heights, where only 80 per cent of the 70 acres of land has houses.

Maragh said there is a clause which forbids homeowners from selling the property which is to be passed down through generations.

He said poor water supply is not an excuse for non-occupancy as water tanks were distributed with arrangements made for a water truck to go to the community weekly to sell the commodity.

Nonetheless, he said piped water is expected to be channelled to that community in a matter of weeks, under a rural water rehabilitation programme now underway.

But at least one occupant has lost a unit to someone who was deemed in greater need, having been left homeless after Ivan.

Richard Osbourne said that although he lost a four-bedroom concrete house to the storm surges, his name never made the list to receive a house. However, three years ago, when his sister-in-law failed to take possession of the house assigned to her, he moved in.

He said his sister in law had lost a one-room board structure and lived elsewhere, but had been given a two-room unit, while he, who had lost a four-room structure, received nothing.

But his fortunes changed when he was told to leave.

“After me live here them (relatives) want me to come out and so me had to go down dere so and rent one of the one- room (unit) fi $3,000 a month,” he explained.

Luckly, when the councillor got wind of the situation, he instructed him to return to the house.

But Osbourne said he won’t be able to relax until he is handed documentation giving him ownership of the property.

“Right now me would like to be able to fence it up and expand on it a bit but me can’t because my name not on the list as the one who receive it,” he argued.

Osbourne said there are still several persons in need, having lost everything during Ivan’s deadly storm surges.

“I have an uncle who lose him house and a whole heap a goat and fowl and is rent him have to be paying now while goat living in these,” he said.

But while some persons abandoned the houses, others have made the best of the gift and expanded them into beautiful homes and created nice yards.

“Look how me plant up me yard,” said a resident called Betty, who spends her days working in a flourishing home garden.

She lives with her son, adult daughter and son-in-law and admits that even the two-room structures are small for a family. But she is still grateful that she no longer has to fear the sea which took the lives of her grandchildren and common-law spouse during Ivan.

“No flood nah trouble we up here because as soon as the rain fall, it run off, so we arite,” she said.

The councillor blames the the ONR for choosing beneficiaries through a raffle and not on a needs basis.

“We said to the ONR, let us separate families from singles, but they just put the names in a raffle,” Maragh said.

The Commissioner of Customs, Danville Walker, who headed up the ONR, could not be reached for comment. However, when the Sunday Observer spoke with him in 2009, he blamed the abandonment of the houses on the fact that persons were never required to pay for the units provided by the USAID, since they were built with US Government funding. According to the USAID website, Jamaica received US$18 million to repair houses and build new ones following Ivan.

“I suspect what you are seeing is what happens when people don’t work for something and they just get it for free,” Walker said then.

For the two-room units built with funds channelled through the ONR, beneficiaries were to have paid a small monthly stipend of $1,000, but to date, these payments have not been made, the Sunday Observer was told.

Walker conceded then, that the one-room units, commonly referred to as type 101 relief houses, were very small.

Walker was, however, satisfied that all persons who received a unit had a legitimate claim.