The owner of the SubCulture Group, Rodney Mayo, his team and Margaritaville have offered assistance to residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. His latest philanthropic project is the building of container homes for those who have no where to stay.
Mr. Mayo told ZNS News, “we’re building and designing container homes and we set out first one up in Fox Town in Abaco and we’re actually bringing a second one to Grand Bahama, and donating that to a family here. We’d like to expand on that program, with the container homes, because some people are still living without their homes but still on the property. And then we’re also working with the stray population mainly in Abaco because there just hasn’t been the relief efforts there since the storm just because the facilities hadn’t been rebuilt.”
Mr. Mayo also explained how the 350 square foot container homes are constructed and erected. He says, “we convert it into either one or two bedroom, kind of micro home and its kind of like a starter home. And we design these to withstand 200 mile per hour winds, so they’re one of the few structures that’s able to qualify for 200 mile per hour winds. They’re also movable so it checks a lot of the boxes as far as being able to survive a hurricane. They can also be completely off the grid with a solar system. So if you do lose power you can still function and still live and they’re also the economical way because its like 1/5 the cost of traditional construction.
As to Mayo’s motivation, he says that he has always thought of The Bahamas as part of the United States and considers Bahamians his neighbours. He hopes the homes will become a model that the Government adopts.