Help Support Housing Recovery

Sustainable long term recovery requires dedicated participation across all sectors of the impacted community. Importantly, it must include equitable access to safe and storm-strong housing for all. As St. John and the U.S. Virgin Islands continue to recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, safe and affordable housing continue to be a leading concern. At Love City Strong, our slate of housing recovery programs is designed to support those residents particularly who have struggled most to recover, while also alleviating pressure on the housing market by increasing available inventory.

A core element of our Disaster Housing Recovery and Mitigation program is a focus on partnerships with local business and contractors in order to complete minor and full rebuilds. This approach ensures not only that recovery dollars stay within the territory, but also that skills and resources are cultivated and maintained, supporting a more prepared island as a whole. The Disaster Housing Recovery and Mitigation Program includes several distinct projects: Our Resilient Housing Initiative (RHI), the RHI Mitigation project (RHI-MIT), and a $7.8M FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Residential Wind Retrofit project (WRP).  Since 2018 we have rebuilt 36 homes through RHI, completed accessibility and safety related repairs on 6 more homes through RHI-MIT, and the Residential Wind Retrofit project will serve an additional 97 homes in the community. Despite these significant efforts, there are still many more families in need of support, and in 2023 we will be continuing our housing recovery efforts through these programs, as well as exploring new projects and solutions.