Housing boss pleads for help for Hustle Truck

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25: The Regiment’s former music director hopes to drum up cash for the Hustle Truck.

Major Barrett Dill said private sector backing is essential to keep the “valuable” scheme running.

He added: “We have restructured but it’s still operating.

“There are still two trucks but we had to reduce the numbers — we would normally have up to 60 people but that has been reduced to 20.”

The Hustle Truck offers unemployed people temporary work for Bermuda Housing Corporation, of which Major Dill is general manager, such as cleaning graffiti and renovating houses.

The aim is to help them get full-time jobs.

But the scheme’s $1 million funding, from the Ministry of National Security, was axed in the Budget, prompting fears it would be scrapped.

Investment

Major Dill said: “We will continue to engage with the private sector to find people who are willing to support this valuable programme.

“It’s something we would want to continue — we’ve certainly seen the benefits it can generate for us and society as a whole.

“We are very hopeful we will get the funding we need and I’d encourage anyone from the private sector who is thinking about some form of investment in the community to think about the Hustle Truck.”

Senator Michael Dunkley, shadow Minister for National Security, said: “I’d encourage the private sector to get involved.

“But as a businessperson and someone who is involved in the community, there are a lot of questions I’d want to ask before I committed money.

“That is not a criticism of the civil servants who are doing their best to try to run the programme. The problems are the economic situation, and any investor will only invest if they’re sure the money they invest is used wisely.

“It is just another example of poor planning by the PLP. They created the Hustle Truck a few years ago and the Opposition is on-record as supporting it because it provided a very necessary service.

“It gave people employment and showed people the skills required to hold a steady job.

“Then the PLP took an about-face — we all understand the challenges facing the island but to just cut without any thought on whether it is sustainable or the right thing to do isn’t right. The Hustle Truck was a programme that should have been protected.”

Derrick Burgess, Deputy Premier and Minister for Public Works, told the House of Assembly in March that his Ministry would back the scheme with more than $300,000 this year.

David Burch, then Minister for National Security, said he was working on a public-private partnership that would ensure “at least a full renewal if not expansion of the programme”.

Responsibility for the Hustle Truck scheme now falls to Walter Roban, Minister of the Environment.

His spokeswoman said: “The Hustle Truck is in the process of being restructured and will be operating within BHC limits.

“The BHC is still in discussions with the private sector regarding future funding.”