Sixty-nine families across Dominica recently received keys to their new homes during a handing-over ceremony held at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium.
This initiative forms part of the Housing Recovery Project, under which a total of 382 homes have been built.
Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Melissa Poponne-Skerrit, addressing the ceremony, said Dominica will remain resilient in the face of future hurricanes.
“Every home we build now is concrete, with a concrete roof,” she said. “The hurricanes can come, they can huff and puff, but they will not blow your house down.”
She continued, “It is the testimonials we hear—the transformations of people’s lives—that keep us pressing on. Earlier this week, we heard testimonies, and today it is the elderly woman who tells us that her new home has added new life and new years to her life because she can finally live in comfort and dignity.”
According to Poponne-Skerrit, the Housing Recovery Project is the first homeowner-driven housing initiative in the entire Caribbean.
“This means that beneficiaries were fully involved in the process,” she explained. “They were hiring their own contractors, paying the contractors, and in some cases purchasing their own materials. They were showing up on site, learning a thing or two—even learning to build a house—being part of the process.”
She further stated that it was community energy at its best.
“All contractors were strictly local, ensuring that every single dollar stayed right here and circulated within the communities,” Poponne-Skerrit emphasized. “But let’s be honest, it was not without challenges. We battled rising global costs. In fact, we changed our cap many times—from $50,000 up to $170,000 at the end—because of material shortages, increased prices, and the realities of rebuilding on a rugged, mountainous island. The terrain is difficult, but still, we pressed on.”
Poponne-Skerrit noted that some new homeowners were initially disqualified because they did not have land titles. However, the government intervened.
“We paid for those titles, we regularized these properties, and we facilitated about 170 families,” she said.
Acting Prime Minister Gretta Roberts also defended the Housing Recovery Project.
“I know sometimes people ask why the government is investing so much in free housing for the people of Dominica. The answer is simple: we live in one of the most disaster-prone regions on Earth. Climate change has made hurricanes more intense, more unpredictable, and more destructive,” she stated. “The storms of today are not the storms of 20 years ago. And it is the poorest and most vulnerable who suffer the most when disasters strike.”
She pointed out that the Government of Dominica, led by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, has taken a firm decision that no Dominican family should be left to face the next hurricane with the same fragility that existed before 2017.
“When we say resilient housing, we mean houses that can weather the storms we know will come,” Roberts asserted. “Homes that protect life, homes that reduce the need for emergency shelters, homes that save families from the trauma of starting all over again.”
Furthermore, she noted that building resilient homes is not just a necessity for survival, but also an investment in the people, the economy, and the future.
We await the stench coming from these ‘new homes’ the same.stench that comes from everything chinese built!
UWP should build houses for the people with the hundreds of millions of dollars they collected SELLING Dominica people passports UWP was already buried 6 feet,it looks like DLP is aiming to bury them 12 feet.The sad thing is UWP candidates cannot go to those houses to campaign,because they will be bathed with cold water.