Charity hopes to stretch $500k to fix 20 homes
(CNS): Using a grant of just $500,000 from the R3 Foundation, a charity founded by Dart, Resilience Cayman is hoping to repair up to 20 homes of elderly and vulnerable people. As poverty grows across the Cayman Islands, many people are unable to fix up old or storm-damaged homes because of escalating costs, low incomes and inadequate pensions.
Many more homes are in need of work to get them sealed and dry to protect against future storms, but the available funds are “used up in the blink of an eye”, according to R3 Relief Committee Chair Woody Foster.
Resilience Cayman, which is a separate local non-profit organisation and not part of R3, has been partnering with the Cayman Islands Government to work on community homes for more than 18 months. Its chairperson, Jan Gupta, said there had been a huge volume of applications for housing repairs from the community.
“There is always more to be done, and limited resources need to be used as efficiently as possible to ensure we can reach as many homes as possible,” she said. “With 18 months of experience in repairing homes for this programme, we now have a strong process for assessing families in need, hiring contractors, purchasing materials and completing the homes on time and within budget.”
The charity has strong relationships with local contractors and vendors but is appealing for more companies to step forward and help. Foster said the grant would stretch to 15 to 20 homes but could go further if they can get in-kind donations of materials and labour from local construction companies and contractors. “Between the rising cost of materials and labour, these funds get used up in the blink of an eye,” Foster stated.
“We wish we could do more but we have to focus on making the homes safe and dry — that is our key priority. Putting on a whole new roof or installing new windows and doors can be an expensive venture,” he said. “We welcome any offer of support from local contractors, plumbers, electricians and building supply companies to donate your time, materials or expertise to help people in need.”
Homes that qualify for the repairs have been identified by the Cayman Islands Government and are vetted by the Resilience Cayman team using a rating system to prioritise elderly or disabled homeowners or vulnerable families with young children. The programme is a one-time grant to owners who will continue to live in the houses once the repairs are complete.
R3 Chairman Dale Crowley said the impact of unsafe housing on health, safety and well-being cannot be underestimated.
“There are people in our community whose lives are upended every time we experience a hard rain, much less a storm,” he said. “Damp, unsafe homes are a threat to human health and safety in so many ways, whether from physical health concerns like mould or the emotional toll of not having a fit-for-purpose home. Access to safe, dry housing is fundamental to ensuring people can live their best lives,” he added.
Individuals and organisations interested in supporting the housing repairs programme are asked to contact info@r3foundation.ky or info@resilience.ky for more information on how to get involved.
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Category: Local News
The Rich getting richer and the Poor getting poorer!!
Locals CANNOT afford to live in this country!!
Thanks Mac. Arise, Sir Alden!
Cayman has too many people who have refused all their lives to be educated or to engage in regular work. They all end up living n shacks. This is a choice .
Me me me fix me
Where’s the data that says poverty is increasing?
The cheapskate billionaire and millionaires behind the R3 Foundation are asking starving trades people to donate their time and effort?!? Seriously? The trades can’t even afford the down payment on the homes they are repairing. When is free grocery day Woody?
Its voluntary funding, which they could have just kept instead – but let’s spit on it because it’s not enough. Whilst ignoring the fact that PACT is going to spend $42 million of public money on a private jet terminal when we have people who can’t even keep their homes weathertight.
A private jet terminal which private business has offered more than once to pay for but been turned away.
thank youagain ken, you legend!
but all recipients should be means tested.
cayman a scam…its native ppl cannot afford to live here anymore! i looking elsewhere…only rich can live here…minature dubai/quatar in making….zzzzz
So the Islands biggest developer is using part of a foundation to help those ‘who are vulnerable and of low incomes’ when the Islands biggest developer has propelled and streamlined the economy out of their reach anyway. It’s kind of like I’ve taken all the good cookies but here’s a cracker to see you over, – good intention or mockery, I’m not really sure.
🤹
Symbolism decoder: Their entire multi-year R3 corporate contribution is likely less than a single night’s worth of overnight interest on their cash account. The fund was seeding with just $1mln after sending home $6mln a month in resort staff payroll at beginning of COVID.
So kind of like BP paying out after the gulf oil spill then. 🛢️
Dart seeded the R3 Foundation with just $1mln, and made total contribution of $2.1mln by 2022 annual report.
Slow clap for the profiteers/Dart tenants attempting to spin their grotesquely meagre profit involvement in this multi-year Foundation into a post-COVID public relations victory.
To improve the trickle down equation in Cayman, reflective of the proportionate gains being booked, and with materiality in scope, DCI should really require proof of minimum community CSR for all T&BL renewals, in percentage of net profit terms, like other civilized first world societies do. Leave the foreign Hedge Funds, and exempt entities, but certainly those T&BL recipients with offices and substantive minds and management situs, employees, and connections to the jurisdiction.
R3 just highlights the embarrassment of riches that waves over the community echelon. Slack which the public has to eventually pay for a second time via CIG funded social services and rescue programs. The take-it-or-leave-it tokenism exemplified by R3 donors, would not be congratulated as meaningful CSR in many financial communities where we seek to rank ourselves.
Not quite sure exactly what is being said here. Is it that Dart should pay for everything since CIG has given his organisation so much in concessions?
Much of the poverty is imported or otherwise a direct failing of our world class civil service to enforce our laws. All foreseeable and foreseen. An intentional destruction of a society.
Nice positive happy story for a change!