Nearly eight months after Super Typhoon Yutu decimated hundreds of homes in the Northern Marianas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is set to start a permanent housing construction programme.
A total of 225 eligible households plan to avail of the program - 212 on Saipan and 13 on Tinian - that would be typhoon-resistant houses of either one, two, or three bedrooms and a water catchment system.
FEMA has hired a contractor from the mainland to spearhead the construction programme, which has a deadline of 120 days.
The contractor has also been asked to use local workers as much as possible.
Another 478 households have already received over $8,000 in repair money from FEMA.