Homestead Housing – St. Thomas VI

Description

A homestead housing program funded with the aid of a $45,000 grant from the Housing Commission and a $242,000 loan from Subsistence Homesteads Corporation, sought to improve housing conditions on the Virgin Islands. The program included housing on farm land in St. Thomas.

The 1934 Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands describes the housing conditions on the islands and the details of the new housing program. “A housing survey in October 1933 in St. Croix, where the need is greatest, showed 2,623 one-room houses, with from 1 to 12 persons in each house. Perhaps half of them are relics of old slavery days, when one room was given over to a family. There is no privacy. There is no back door (indeed only one door), so that washing, cooking, and living is within the few feet at the front of the house. A start in the program to correct housing conditions has been made in connection with the homestead plan. With a grant of $45,000 from the Housing Commission, more than 50 houses are being provided for farmers who have proven themselves to be reliable and good workers (40 in St. Croix and 10 in St. Thomas). These are 3-room houses with a gallery and 1,200-gallon cistern, and are built of concrete blocks with galvanized iron roofs. They are to be paid for in 19 years on a rental purchase plan. This plan has been eagerly welcomed by the islanders. On the success achieved from the initial allotment, the Subsistence Homesteads Corporation has authorized a loan of $242,000 with which to carry forward both homesteading and housing operations in the Virgin Islands.”