Nine Months in a Church Kitchen: The Westmoreland Congregation Still Sheltering a Man Melissa Left Homeless

• A 71-year-old amputee has slept in a church kitchen since Hurricane Melissa
• The same congregation had earlier built him a house, which the storm flattened
• The frame of his replacement home stands, but work has stalled for lack of materials
• He says he registered for government help but has received nothing

For nine months, the kitchen of Mt Matthews Church of the Nazarene in Logwood, Shrewsbury, Westmoreland, has been home to Edgar Bruce. The 71-year-old lost his wooden house when Hurricane Melissa tore through western Jamaica in October 2025, and the congregation handed over its kitchen so he would have somewhere dry to sleep, the Gleaner reported.

Bruce’s circumstances make the loss harder than most. He lost his right leg to diabetes, is blind in one eye and moves with a walker. On the night of the storm he stayed put until it became clear the house would not hold, then called out to his nephew, who lives in a concrete house nearby. The nephew got him out moments before the structure came down. “As we come out, the building just fall,” Bruce told the newspaper.

The church’s commitment to him goes back further than the hurricane. Minister Jacqueline Clarke explained that the congregation had already built him a home once. “The church had built him a house already with a bathroom, and Melissa come and blow it down,” she said. Members started helping him rebuild, but many were dealing with damage to their own homes. “Everybody love him. Everybody would want to help,” Clarke said.

The frame of a new house now stands on Bruce’s original plot, but the job has stalled. He needs lumber, capping, plywood and other materials to finish the roof and make it liveable. He told the Gleaner he registered for government assistance after the storm but received nothing, with officials reportedly pointing to GPS-related system problems. The rebuild suffered a further blow when his son, who had been helping with the work, was killed in a motor vehicle crash.

After the story ran, US-based Jamaican philanthropist Anthony Turner pledged J$50,000 towards building materials, calling it “the least I could do” and hoping others would follow.

Bruce’s case shows a side of hurricane recovery that official figures miss: when state help is slow, rural churches often end up as landlord, shelter and building crew, all at once, with the same stretched members who are repairing their own roofs. For diaspora congregations and returnees looking for somewhere their money will count, a half-finished frame on land the owner already holds is about as direct a use as there is. A few sheets of plywood and some capping could move a man out of a church kitchen and back under his own roof.

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