‘A so them treat the elderly’

SPRING MOUNT, St James — Lezma Reid shows no fear as she walks across the floorboards of what remains of sections of her house in this rural community. Despite her stooping gait, she moves across the structure daily, keeping watch over what remains of her possessions that she’d managed to push into a section of the house that was not destroyed during the onslaught of Hurricane Melissa last October. In a voice still strong, she vented her frustration at the slow pace of government assistance in her time of need.

“A so them treat the elderly,” she said, as she gave a tour of the remaining sections of the two-bedroom house. “Is 10 months now, and all now, nothing,” Reid lamented. Most of the houses nearby were also damaged or destroyed by the Category 5 storm.

Reid has been waiting for help through the Government’s shelter recovery programme, Restoration of Owner or Occupant Family Shelters (ROOFS). According to the latest update provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), ROOFS has done 118,365 assessments and disbursed almost $11 billion in materials or cash to 50,000 families. Sections of the Hurricane-Melissa damaged house in Spring Mount, St James that belongs to senior citizen Lezma Reid.

In a recent JIS News release, Labour Minister Pearnel Charles Jr explained that lessons learnt during the first phase would be applied to this next stage. There will be greater emphasis placed on completing verifications and improving the efficiency of the process, he said. “Most of the work is done, because we have identified the categories of issues and we have identified an approach to make sure that we can maintain the balance between efficiency and accountability,” the minister said.

According to the release, Government is revamping the programme to address the logistical challenges that delayed the initial distribution of benefits. Reid told the Jamaica Observer that while a team from the labour ministry has helped her relocate, there has been little progress on providing the funds needed to repair her house. When the MLSS’s Montego Bay office was contacted, a worker who did not wish to be identified by name told the Sunday Observer that Reid had been provided financial assistance.

“We had a situation where we were spelling her name wrong, we were using an ‘S’ where it should be a ‘Z’, but I know they got her ac…