GREEN PARK, Trelawny — Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr has sought to assure concerned individuals who repaired their houses after the passage of Hurricane Melissa, before the disbursement of grants under the Restoration of Owner and Occupant Family Shelter (ROOFS) programme, that they still stand to benefit under the programme.

He was responding to a question posed by Member of Parliament for Trelawny Northern Tova Hamilton, during the presentation of ROOFS repair grants at Abundant Life Ministries in Green Park last Wednesday.

“Persons who were exposed to the elements and had to make their repairs before they get the grant, what happens to them? Once you were assessed — meaning, once we came to your house and we took the pictures, and we do the GPS location, and we asked you the questions — even if you did repairs thereafter it does not affect your receiving of the grant,” Charles Jr explained.

He announced that $366 million has been distributed to more than 1,300 beneficiaries in the parish who were affected by the Category 5 storm last October.

“All of these persons — the 318 persons in the severe category, 1,011 in the major and 68 in the minor — all of those persons have been approved and so the money can now move over to them,” said the labour and social security minister.

“Once that list is assessed and verified it then now moves to the next stage of being approved. After it is approved, we then make the payment out to you,” he added.

Under ROOFS, the ministry is set to distribute $10 billion to affected Jamaicans to help them rebuild their homes. Many have lost roofs.

A total of $5.22 billion has been disbursed across several parishes so far, and Charles Jr urged individuals who have already received text messages notifying them of their disbursements to redeem the benefit quickly as it will expire within three months.

He also noted that with use of the upgraded Jamaica Household Damage, Impact and Needs Assessment (JHDINA) Lite platform and a real-time national dashboard, more than 100,000 damage assessments have been completed under ROOFS — Jamaica’s largest housing-recovery initiative.

“During nine months or eight months or so [following Hurricane Beryl], we were able to assess less than 19,000,” he said by comparison.

“Part of what we do is to use a system that allows us to move from paper to digital, and we use a digital real-time system to immediately upload the information,” the minister said.

According to Charles Jr, there have been 101,458 household assessments done across the country.

“That’s a lot; and Trelawny is one of the parishes that was also severely hit,” he added.

Wakefield resident Conroy “Busha” Jenkins, who received a $200,000 grant, was effusive in expressing his gratitude.

“It will assist me, and I give God thanks. And I also thank the Government for initiating the programme,” Jenkins told the Jamaica Observer.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr speaking during Wednesday’s ROOFS benefits handout in Trelawny.