While officials are still tallying the numbers for North Andros and Grand Bahama, they confirmed recently that Hurricane Matthew’s wrath over a week ago left more than 100 individuals homeless in New Providence.
According to the Assistant Director at the Ministry of Social Services (SS) Cherely Kelly, of that number, 87 are adults, and 46 are children.
As of Friday, Mrs. Kelly told the Bahama Journal that the number of individuals seeking shelter is likely to increase.
“There are adults with children, mothers with children. Some of the mothers are pregnant. Some of them are employed, and some are unemployed,” Mrs. Kelly said.
“For the most part, their devastation is at the point where they cannot live in their houses or their apartments wherever they were. This number is increasing daily, and we also have persons who are in the shelters who may have been there over a week, and they’re asking for an extended period of time,” she said.
“We are also encouraging every person who may have been in rental units to go into our various centres and make application for rent assistance so that they can get into a more permanent housing situation,” Mrs. Kelly explained.

1. These displaced residents, Mrs. Kelly said, are being placed within motels throughout New Providence.During Hurricane Matthew’s touchdown Thursday before last, and excess of 2,000 people occupied the 22 shelters available throughout the capital.Just last Thursday, the only remaining shelter, the Kendal GL Isaacs Gymnasium, closed its doors.

   Meanwhile, some families have lost their homes totally, while some homes can be repaired.

   Deborah Smith, senior welfare officer at Social Services, insisted that her department is doing all in its power to get the displaced residents back on their feet.

   “Persons are definitely in need. We have begun to compile that list of persons who we know are in need, so when it’s time to begin the repairs and so on, we will have that readily available so that the repairs can be done,” she said.

   “Basically most persons’ concern is that they can’t get their house repaired because of lack of funds or unemployment. They’re asking ‘where do I go next?’ There seems to some kind of depression,” Mrs. Smith said.

   “However, we have seen them coming around since they know that something is in the air, to mobilize them and to assist them in getting their lives back together,” she added.