CARE still needs $13M for post-Soudelor repairs

Commonwealth Advocates for Recovery Efforts director Jenny Hegland, center, reports to members of their group that included president Alex Sablan, right, and press secretary Ivan Blanco during their meeting yesterday at the Governor’s Office conference room on Capital Hill. (Jon Perez)

Hegland, during CARE’s monthly meeting yesterday at the Governor’s Office conference room, said that an estimated total cost of $13,899,003.94 would be needed to answer the unmet housing needs.

“Thirty percent of the homes need to be totally rebuilt, we will start from scratch like laying the foundation and everything which is more costly. The remaining 70 percent need some repairs,” said Hegland after the meeting.

“We estimated that amount on the unmet needs for housing repairs and rebuilding of 591 island-wide cases. We took into consideration the construction estimates, and the cost of materials and labor,” she added.

Hegland said that originally $15,418.817 was needed for all the 591 families but they subtracted the amount of $1,519,813.90 after 42 percent of those affected received assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“There are 58 percent of families that were ineligible to receive FEMA assistance and some of them are renters that also need help for repairs since their landlords are not taking care of the repairs,” added Hegland.

The American Red Cross-NMI Chapter helped in putting up the report under their immediate disaster case management program with their case managers going around the island to identify the most immediate cases.

Hegland, in the report she submitted to the group, also said that 90.7 percent of the families with documented unmet needs through the IDCM have individuals in their households with functional needs, medical needs, and have a family member over 65 or under three, or live below the poverty line.

An approximate of 34.2 percent of residents with unmet needs was of Northern Marianas Descent, while 16.8 percent of the families have at least one household member with disability.

CARE has already reviewed 21 cases since their initial meeting and currently assisting 14 families or 43 individuals with additional cases pending. They have also allotted $64,853 in resources to support repairs and rebuilding.

“As much as possible we want to inform the community. We want to be transparent. We all know that this is a long process of recovery that’s why we all need everyone’s help,” Hegland said.

Representatives from Skywalker Communications Group were also present during the meeting to get some information on how to help with the repair and recovery efforts. Skywalker is trying to introduce the GreensStay housing project that they said is specifically designed for Pacific Island nations like the CNMI.