The massive amount of lumber stored outside at Henderson School on St. Croix for years, in the elements, has not been destroyed, for the most part, according to the executive director of the V.I. Office of Disaster Recovery.
“It’s slightly discolored, but it’s useable,” Executive Director Adrienne Williams-Octalien told the Source. “It’s tier-one lumber, which is the best you can get.”
Williams-Octalien admitted some of the wood is damaged, but “the majority is usable.” Before it is allocated to rebuild homes on St. Croix, each board will be documented to determine what can be used by a contractor and what will be re-purposed.
The supplies were at the center of a two-year federal investigation involving a $4 million VIHFA contract for storage and management of the wood that was shipped to the territory to be used for the reconstruction of commercial and residential buildings following hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Three people — David Charlemagne, his wife, Sasha Charlemagne, and former Housing Finance Authority Chief Operating Officer Darin Richards — are facing fraud charges.
Since November 2023, 15 homes that were approved in 2018 for the EnVIsion Tomorrow Program are in line for rehabilitation. Another 39 are being evaluated, according to the executive director.
All applicants went through several steps in 2018 for consideration. (Anyone who wishes to be included in the program may apply now.) After an application is submitted, ODR will verify the homeowner’s eligibility and the home’s damage due to the hurricanes. Then, an architect will draw plans, permits will be obtained, and an environmental study will be conducted. The work will then be put out to bid.
One contractor — Persons Services Corp — has been approved to do the construction work. The director said ODR is looking for more contractors to rebuild up to 200 homes. Persons Services is currently rebuilding the Charles “Tappy” Searles Fire Station on St. Croix, Williams-Octalien said.
After the scandal and arrests last week involving the lumber stored at Henderson School for the EnVIsion Tomorrow Program, the director said ODR needs to keep good records for U.S. Housing and Urban Development and the V.I. Property and Procurement Department. She said she learned of the arrests “in the news.”
“ODR is not the grantee of the funds nor was the contract with our office. Any such notification would not come to us first,” she said.
After the EnVIsion Program, funded by the federal government, was announced in 2018, the V.I. Housing Finance Authority targeted September 2019 to launch. The program limped through COVID until last November, when ODR took over the program.
After the 2017 hurricanes, public officials heard from residents with damaged or destroyed homes pleading for help from the V.I. government.
St. Croix Administrator Sammuel Sanes said he received several calls but after time can’t remember how many. He remembered one family eventually left island and he was able to locate a canvas tarp for another.
Former Sen. Genevieve Whitaker said she was contacted by people who needed help paying their rent. She also remembers a resident who also moved away and another who died waiting for help. Another caller said their roof was repaired badly. Another homeowner applied for the EnVIsion Program and waited three to four years to be contacted. Eventually, ODR contacted the resident.
