PHILIPSBURG – The National Recovery Program Bureau would like to inform the general public that the registration for the Home Repair Program will close on Friday, April 26. This program falls under Emergency Recovery Project I of the Trust Fund and focuses on the repairs to roofs, doors, windows and minor electrical work in houses damaged by hurricane Irma.

The repairs to the first batch of homes under the home repair program will start in May. Meanwhile, the NRPB is processing all the applications for home repair assistance. In total, the Ministry of VSA has received over 700 requests for assistance in the past 18 months.

Since January of this year, the NRPB is working with a team of seven social assessors, who are working full-time on processing all these applications. Their key task is to contact each individual applicant in order to verify: one, whether they still need assistance and secondly, whether the applicant fulfills the minimum requirements of the program. The goal is to qualify as many applicants as possible within the available budget and the social criteria that have been set by the Council of Ministers.

The National Recovery Program Bureau asks all persons who have not been contacted by the social assessors and who are still in need of home repair assistance to present themselves with the required documentation for an intake-interview. The final round of intakes will take place as of Monday April 15 until Friday April 26, from 9:00am to 3:00pm at the Cole Bay Community Help Desk, the Dutch Quarter Community Help Desk or the St. Peters Community Center.

In order to apply for the home repair program, applicants must be a legal resident of Sint Maarten, living in Sint Maarten; their primary place of residence must be the house that needs repairs; they must legally own the house that requires repairs and they must have a monthly income of no more than Nafl. 4,000. Applicants must possess a valid Dutch Passport or St. Maarten ID and have proof of ownership such as a deed or a title of ownership from the Kadaster and an income tax declaration or SZV income statement from 2017 or 2018.

Persons requiring further information can contact the program’s Activity Manager Ursel Biabiany-Gumbs at telephone number 721-585-7663 (585-ROOF) or email homerepair@nrpbsxm.org.

The Sint Maarten Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience Trust Fund is financed by the Government of the Netherlands, managed by the World Bank and implemented by the Government of Sint Maarten.