Governor urges extension of deadline to ensure completion of repairs on eligible homes ahead of 2019 hurricane season.
CHRISTIANSTED— Governor Albert Bryan Jr, in a letter Wednesday to FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Michael Byrne, requested an extension to the USVI Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power (STEP) program.
The extension requested by Governor Bryan will allow for the completion of work on the remaining eligible homes past the current performance deadline of January 31.
In his letter to Byrne, Governor Bryan highlighted the importance of the STEP Program to the people of the Virgin Islands and acknowledged the challenges the Virgin Islands Housing Authority has experienced with repairing thousands of homes in a short period.
Governor Bryan also underscored the need to complete repairs on the remaining homes before the 2019 Hurricane season, which begins in June, as another reason for extending the program, as it would take months to restart repairs to remaining eligible homes under other federally-funded program.
“While I understand that there are other federal programs that can fund home repairs,” the governor wrote, “a project funded by either FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program or HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program would take at least several months to get started.”
“To continue STEP now without interruption is the only logical way to guarantee that these remaining 1,700 homes will be repaired before the 2019 hurricane season is upon us,” Governor Bryan added.
Five thousand five hundred homes in the territory have received repairs under the STEP program with an additional 1700 awaiting repair. With 480 five-person roofing crews in the territory and another 75 crews arriving next week, the STEP program is 79 percent complete.