Hurricane-resistant Home Improvement in the OECS

Making low-income housing in the OECS safer and environmentally sustainable
through property insurance and home retrofit programs.

Terms of Reference for the Development of Environmentally Sensitive Siting Criteria for Housing

Background

Under the USAID/OAS Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project, the OAS assisted the National Research and Development Foundation of St. Lucia (NRDF) in launching a Hurricane Resistant Home Improvement Program (HRHIP). This program has been operational for nearly 7 years. Recently, the OAS has been able to generate an interest on the part of the World Bank World in this program, and in exploring the potential for its replication in other territories of the Eastern Caribbean. In response, a short-term project was prepared by the OAS and approved by the World Bank.

The proposed project aims to review the lessons learned from the St. Lucia HRHIP program and to build capacity in the OECS to improve on and replicate the linkage of property insurance with home retrofit programs for low-income homeowners. It will also introduce an environmental management dimension to the existing program. There will be four main activities under this project: 1) strengthening of the safer housing and insurance program for low-income homeowners in St. Lucia; 2) development of siting criteria designed to minimize the impact of the housing on the environment and to minimize the effects of prevalent hazards on the housing; 3) development of a blueprint for successful safer and environmentally sustainable housing retrofit and insurance programs for use in the region, based on the St. Lucia program and on an assessment of existing safer housing programs and insurance schemes for low-income housing in the region; and 4) a sub-regional workshop to present the draft blueprint and to identify opportunities for replication of this program within the region.

Purpose

The purpose of this consultancy is to prepare an overview of typical environmental problems associated with locating and constructing lower income housing in St. Lucia, and to identify and formulate appropriate and feasible remedial measures. The overview will include, but not be limited to, a sample of homes that have benefited from the NRDF HRHIP. In particular, the consultant will:

1. Consult with NRDF Director and staff, and with staff of government agencies involved in low income housing in St. Lucia. 
2. Visit selected low income housing sites to compile information on the typical environmental problems that exist in low income housing areas. The reviews should address the impact of the houses on the environment, and the impact of environmental hazards on the houses. Appropriate documentary information, such as photographs and sketches, should be compiled to assist in illustrating the problems. 
3. Develop a typology of the principal problems and prepare an analysis of the underlying factors and conditions that affect these problems. 
4. For each type of problem identified, identify and describe a range of remedial measures, indicating as appropriate cost and feasibility information. 
5. Formulate guidelines for the selection and implementation of the remedial measures, for use by housing program managers and homeowners involved in HRHIP-type programs in the Eastern Caribbean. 
6. Present the guidelines in a user-friendly document with ample illustrations. Coordinate with the consultants from the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC) on the integration/coordination of the environmental section with the structural section of the overall guidelines document.

Last Updated 13 March 2003