June 30, 2008 — With construction noise as a backdrop, government and private-sector officials broke ground Monday on the Calabash Boom affordable housing project on St. John.
"A project like this is not just about housing but about families," Gov. John deJongh Jr. said.
DeJongh, the keynote speaker at the hour-long ceremony, said that with the Calabash Boom affordable housing project must come services like schools, fire and police protection, transportation, and jobs for those who will live at this remote end of St. John.
The V.I. Housing Finance Authority worked since 1984 to get the project underway, said Clifford Graham, director of the Housing Finance Authority.
"This development has always been extremely important because there is a lack of affordable housing on St. John," he said.
Because St. John has such a shortage of affordable housing, many people who work there must take the ferry from their home on St. Thomas to get to work, Graham noted.
He and several other speakers mentioned the legal challenges that came from a group of neighbors and others called the Friends of Coral Bay. Ultimately, those challengers lost in U.S. District Court, but their actions delayed the project and cost money for the developer, Reliance Housing Foundation. (See "Judge Dismisses Friends of Coral Bay Suit Against Calabash Boom.")
Construction started in January 2007 but stopped because the Friends of Coral Bay mounted its legal challenge. When the issue was resolved in January, Reliance started up work again in February.
Reliance Housing and its contractor, the St. Croix-based GEC, are building 48 rental units and 24 homes for purchase under the affordable-housing program. The projects sit on 9.2 acres of land.
Reliance Housing President Robert O. Jackson, prefacing his remarks by noting that he never speaks in public, said that he was honored to work in the Virgin Islands.
"This is truly a partnership," he said.
Sen. Celestino A. White, who pushed for affordable housing across the territory, urged St. John residents to apply to own or rent at Calabash Boom.
In fact, the Housing Finance Authority's chief operating officer, Adrienne L. Williams, who served as master of ceremonies, played on White's middle initial — "A" — to give him a new moniker.
"Celestino 'Affordable Housing' White," she said to laughter from the 50 people gathered for the groundbreaking.
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