Jennifer Kelly spreads her picnic blanket in the generous shade of a grove of sea grape and casuarina trees and watches her children surf a piece of ply wood in the waves.
Behind her, the silver tarp of a large tent struggles against a stiffening breeze. It’s an idyllic family scene that hides a harsher reality.
“It has always been my dream to camp on the beach,” she told the Compass Tuesday.
“But not like this.”
For now, for Jennifer and her husband, and two children, age 6 and 8, this is their home.
“If it was just me, I would be okay. I could sleep in my car. But it is not fair to the kids,” she said.
The Needs Assessment Unit, non-profit Acts of Random Kindness and the Ministry of Social Development have mobilised this week to provide swift support to the family. But their story highlights an urgent gap in Cayman’s safety net.
Minister André Ebanks, told the Compass, that there is a “critical need for transitional housing” in Cayman and his ministry is working on a number of options to fill that void. He hopes to be able to launch a pilot project in short order.
Reforms to the NAU – which become final Thursday, along with its rebrand as the Department of Financial Assistance – mean that there is now more funding available for people in desperate situations. The agency has approved rental support for Ms Kelly and her family.
But despite an expedited process, there remains a limbo period where families can be left without a roof over their head while those approvals are confirmed and as they seek to find a landlord willing to take clients on financial support.
That’s what happened to Ms Kelly last week when she and a handful of friends moved her bed, a stove and a handful of holdalls with her possessions to a tent on the beach.
Her children recently came back to Grand Cayman after living with a relative in Honduras, meaning she could no longer stay in the single room she was renting and she was forced to leave in haste after a dispute with the landlord.
And she is still struggling to find an available apartment. Ms Kelly has been out of work for over a year and her husband is waiting on official permission to allow him to work in Cayman.
“It has been a couple of rough years. It is hard for the children.
“They were so excited to tell all their school friends they are living on the beach but I don’t want them to grow up thinking its ok to just hop in a car one day and move all your stuff to the beach.”
Complex challenges
The challenges facing low or no income families in Cayman are varied and complex.
Reforms to financial assistance mean rental support grants have been raised to reflect the cost of living and the agency is geared up to more efficiently support people in desperate situations.
Charity Acts of Random Kindness often works to fill the gaps – helping find renters willing to take NAU and covering temporary expenses for families, particularly those with children, who find themselves homeless.
Tara Nielsen, of ARK, said a family living in a tent on the beach was an extreme example of a much larger issue.
“There are many more people that are couch surfing or living in cars or homes without power and water, which are barely more habitable than a tent.”
She said ARK steps in, in extreme cases, where children’s welfare is impacted.
In this instance she said the priority was to get a roof over the family’s head. She said the NAU had committed to rental support and it is now just a case of finding suitable accommodation.
Transitional housing need
The charity is looking for more concrete long-term solutions for those that find themselves in similar positions. It has funding committed for a pilot project to provide transitional housing and to rent to NAU clients in the longer term.
Nielsen said the hope was to start with a small 8 or 10 apartment complex and replicate the concept in districts all round the island.
She said the non-profit is looking at ways to work with government to maximise the impact of its spending and to ensure social support as well as housing for those that would use such a facility.
“We need temporary transitional housing for exactly this purpose,” she said.
“Even when people aren’t necessarily living on the beach, they are sofa surfing or living in cars or in buildings that are literally falling apart.”
She said the goal was to have sufficient, decent quality housing to home people while they regrouped and found private sector accommodation.
Ebanks, also the deputy premier, said he was exploring opportunities to make crown land available for joint projects with partner agencies like ARK.
“The Ministry of Social Development understands the critical need for transitional housing in our country—where individuals, due to a variety of circumstances, urgently require temporary shelter.
“We are actively exploring several avenues to address this,” he said in an emailed response to the Compass.
He said the aim was to identify land, work with partner agencies and provide facilities in multiple districts. He added that collaboration with Planning and other government ministries was necessary to ensure sufficiently robust structures could be built in the most cost-effective way.
“We look forward to finalising and launching a pilot programme” he added.
Meanwhile, the new Financial Assistance Act, which streamlines the NAU process, makes more funding available to those in need and allows for special expedited grants in emergency circumstances and one-off funding for rental deposits, launches Thursday.
A spokesperson for the ministry said the unit – now renamed the Department of Financial Assistance – aims to provide support to eligible families within 10 days of receiving an application.
“In some instances, emergency provisions can be provided on an expedited basis if the Director determines that circumstances warrant this level of intervention.
The reforms will “provide more support than ever to families who need it the most,” she said.
She added that the legislation would provide better help for those who are unemployed or underemployed through financial support for transportation, telephone and internet expenses – often cited as key barriers to getting back into work.
In the case of Ms Kelly and her children, Nielsen said she was pleased that government had responded quickly to provide adequate support.
Confirmation that the unit will provide rental support for up to 12 months was a light at the end of the tunnel for the mother-of-two, after a difficult week. She aims to get her high school diploma and get back to work once she has her children in a safe place.
Her six-year-old-son has even bigger ambitions.
Taking a break from playing with his sister on the beach this week he listed the things he hoped to buy for his mother when he is grown up.
“A big house, 20 Lamborghinis, a private chef…” he trails off. The only limits are his imagination.
For Nielsen, the children are at the heart of what ARK tries to do.
“If we are to break this cycle and give them the opportunities that their parents didn’t have, the first thing we need to do is make sure they have somewhere safe to live,” she said.