Minister of Housing and National Insurance the Hon. Kenneth Russell announced the direction and focus for an updated Urban Renewal Liveable Neighbourhood Programme at a press conference at the Ministry’s office Monday.

Mr. Russell said the government and the Ministry of Housing and National Insurance “fully appreciate that urban renewal is a multi-component overarching concept, involving many agencies/departments/ministries of government, and will be treated as such.”

“Cooperation among all concerned is essential to avoid duplication of services,” he noted.

As a result, Mr. Russell said officials from the Ministry of Housing and National Insurance met with representatives from all of its government partners in January to explain the new thrust of this programme and enlist their support for future endeavours.

He explained that the focal point for the leadership and direction will be at the Ministry’s headquarters.

The Minister said the programme will have two coordinators, Ella Lewis in New Providence whose background is in education and Tirzah Carey in Grand Bahama whose background includes social services and housing.

He also said the Urban Renewal Liveable Neighbourhood programme has four key objectives: to increase public safety, to increase wealth, to increase independence and to give people and the communities a sense of responsibility.

Mr. Russell said managers have been appointed for all of the nine urban renewal centres in New Providence and the six in Grand Bahama. “To the extent possible, centre managers have been selected from the communities and will interact directly with persons in the communities.”

He said centre managers will be assisted by Community Project Facilitators stationed at the Ministry headquarters in New Providence and at the Urban Renewal headquarters in Freeport, Grand Bahama. “For effective control and accountability,” Mr. Russell said, “community project facilitators will be under the direct supervision of the coordinators and ministry personnel. These will be deployed on an as-needed basis to provide practical and technical support in the field for the centres.”

Mr. Russell noted that persons employed in the urban renewal programme, with a few exceptions, are contract officers and not public servants.

He said for the present, the premises used for urban renewal centres will continue to be used. “The Ministry is reviewing all rental contracts to ensure the suitability of the premises for the delivery of services in the communities.”

He added that where institutions and facilities already exist within communities these will be accessed for the delivery of programmes.

Mr. Russell explained that the Englerston area has been chosen to demonstrate how the new thrust will work and projects have been selected for execution in the area to determine how the goals identified above can be achieved.

Submitted by BIS