The Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority will repair almost 8,000 hurricane-damaged homes by Aug. 15, VIHFA director Daryl Griffith told the Senate Finance Committee during his budget presentation on Tuesday.
“We recognize that there may be concerns about the large number of homes that remain to be undertaken in the short timeframe,” acknowledged Griffith. “However, we assure the residents of the territory that we are committed to serving all eligible clients.”
In the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Gov. Kenneth Mapp appointed VIHFA the lead agency in administering the Emergency Home Repairs V.I. Program, or EHRVI, the massive home repair effort funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The goal, stressed Griffith, was not to return homes to pre-hurricane conditions but to make them safe and habitable while homeowners wait for permanent repairs.
The construction date for the EHRVI Program ends on Aug. 15, but thousands of homes remain unrepaired. As of June 16, EHRVI has completed 5,246 site visits, completed construction on 2,235 homes and did final inspection sign-offs on 1,810 homes.
Griffith acknowledged that working on a large volume of homes within a short period of time risks mistakes in workmanship. The agency, he said, holds daily complaint meetings with its main contractor, AECOM. Griffith urged residents to submit complaints involving scope, length of time between inspection and construction or quality of repairs by calling EHRVI’s Program Feedback Hotline at 1-855-378-0799.
HFA also narrowed down a date when the agency will pay in full its obligations to AECOM, the major multinational engineering, design and construction firm that manages the repairs and construction under EHRVI.
“AECOM will be paid by the end of this week, and we’ve been in constant communication with them,” Griffith said.
On June 6, the Washington Post reported the territory had asked FEMA for the speedy disbursement of some $186 million in funding to pay contractors, including AECOM. The Post reported AECOM had said it had not been paid, so had not paid subcontractors. In a recent statement, Mapp said the government was cutting a $13.5 million check to AECOM by June 12, with the outstanding balance soon to follow.
According to Griffith, the payment for AECOM has gone through the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency and the V.I. Department of Finance.
When Vialet pressed him on whether this means AECOM’s subcontractors would be paid next week, Griffith responded: “That depends on AECOM. We will pay AECOM for sure, then we will follow up with AECOM to make sure they fulfill their responsibilities.”
On May 25, HFA also submitted its action plan to Housing and Urban Development so it can begin using some $242 million in HUD funding, the first allocation from the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery funds intended to address unmet housing, infrastructure and mitigation needs after the 2017 hurricanes. According to Griffith, when HUD approves the action plan, the territory can access the funds by August and begin advertising for 20 positions needed to administer the funds over the grant’s six-year lifetime.
Housing and Finance also identified two properties on St. Thomas that are already in its inventory that would provide 32 additional emergency housing units, the need for which surged after the Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The agency is also in talks with multiple property owners in both districts about buying properties that can also be converted to emergency housing.
This year, the agency’s recommended appropriation is $2 million dollars, which would supplement its projected revenues of $1.8 million from land and home sales, as well as leases and mortgages, and $3.2 million from miscellaneous sources.
Office of the Inspector General
Inspector General Steven Van Beverhoudt also appeared before the Senate on Tuesday, presenting a recommended budget of $2.47 million, an increase of almost $220,000 from last year’s budget. According to Van Beverhoudt, the increase would fund the proposed hiring of six additional auditors, four for the St. Croix district and two for St. Thomas.
“Right now, we have six auditors, and we basically have our auditors work in teams of two,” said Van Beverhoudt. “We have six ongoing audits. If we get six more auditors, that’s three more audits we can have potentially. We can have six audits active at one time.”
Vialet remarked that the OIG’s budget is one of the easier budgets to consider. Van Beverhoudt and his team have a track record of successfully auditing activities of government agencies and officials, including uncovering the rigging of the 2012 and 2013 property auctions under the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and, more recently, Education Commissioner Sharon Ann McCollum’s use of the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School generator to provide power for her own home in the aftermath of the 2017 hurricanes.
Van Beverhoudt is also poised to retire from his position as inspector general, but said he is confident that Deputy Inspector General Delia Thomas, who worked in the agency since 1989, is capable of taking over the agency.
