Housing crisis leaves workers in costly, cramped conditions
(CNS): The housing crisis in the Cayman Islands is leading to overseas low-paid workers living in costly but nevertheless unacceptable slum conditions, with some paying as much as $400 per month for a bunkbed in tiny apartments where even kitchens have been converted into bedrooms. CNS has received several reports about the cramped conditions some people are living in and the shocking prices being charged by landlords who are taking advantage of the massive shortage of affordable accommodation.
Development focused entirely on the luxury market, a return of foreign workers post-pandemic and a switch by many rental property owners from domestic tenants to the more lucrative Airbnb market as the winter seasons approaches have combined to make an already bad situation even worse and created a crisis for ordinary workers.
There is very little affordable rental accommodation left on Grand Cayman now, and what there is tends to be in the Eastern Districts, and even then it usually requires workers to share to make it affordable. But the level of sharing has now reached disturbing levels.
Some landlords are converting their properties from one- and two-bedroom apartments into rooms with bunk beds, even taking out cookers and fridges to put in more beds. CNS has heard reports of people living in a single bedroom where landlords have placed three or four bunk beds, side by side, and are charging each person anywhere from $300-450 per month for a slot in a bunk bed.
The men must share a bathroom, not just with those in their bedroom but the other six to eight people who sleep in the living room, which has also been converted into a bunk-bed dormitory.
According to a senior compliance official at WORC, information about accommodation is still collected on all work permit applications to ensure that the prospective employee has a place to reside when arriving or when an application is renewed.
“However, it is not practical upon initial submission of every application for WORC to verify that the accommodation listed is suitable,” the official told CNS in response to our inquiries. “Determining suitability would also require assessment by other government departments.”
The official explained that if WORC receives a complaint about substandard living conditions of any work permit holder, it will make initial inquiries and, if applicable, report the matter to the planning department and other relevant government departments in order to carry out any necessary inspections and investigations.
But few people living in unsuitable conditions are willing to report the reality of their circumstances because they want to retain their permits. Despite the costly and uncomfortable accommodation, often with no cooking facilities and bathrooms shared with dozens of people, some low-paid workers are prepared to endure the hardship in order to send whatever money they can home, where their earnings have considerable buying power and can support their families.
The problem is having a knock-on effect on the wider community, with neighbours complaining about the increased garbage due to multiple people living in small units designed for no more than two people. People are complaining of disposable food containers mounting outside apartment blocks and rooms because workers have nowhere to cook and are forced to eat take-out food.
Labour Minister Chris Saunders has said that the automation of the work permit system will help enforcement teams spot where workers are being crammed into properties. He told CNS that applicants are required to state the block and parcel number for the place where a permit holder will be living.
He explained that once the system is automated, that information will need to be uploaded before an application is considered and a permit is granted. A red flag will be raised when one block and parcel number appears to have an excessive number of permit applicants connected to it, which will help crack down on this practice of creating unofficial dormitories.
Saunders said that the housing situation is reaching a crisis, but the PACT Government has formed a task force that is focused on solutions to the problem.
The lack of suitable accommodation is having a particular impact on employers, too, especially in the tourism and construction sectors, where wages, though they have increased marginally, are not keeping pace with rents, which is adding to the shortage of workers. As a result, some businesses are considering creating their own official workers’ dormitories and even building staff houses.
In a recent report in the Cayman Compass, one restaurant owner complained that planning doesn’t provide for the dormitory accommodation they had planned. “There is no scope for dormitory-style accommodation in the planning laws,” he said, explaining that he would like to put 15 rooms on the site and offer simple subsidised housing to staff.
During last week’s CITA meeting, the issue of housing was raised by members who are facing the same problem. Outgoing president Marc Langevin has called for the provision of a reliable bus system, with buses running at night, to enable tourism workers to live further out in the Eastern Districts, where rents are more affordable. He said that without a car it’s not possible to work nights on Seven Mile Beach and then get home to Bodden Town.
The government has noted the broad problems with affordable housing and has rolled out a number of long-term ideas and is supporting local people to buy their own homes with a number of schemes. But so far it has not presented any immediate solutions to the shortage of rental accommodation.
As a result, more landlords are taking advantage of low-paid workers and renting them beds in cramped, wretched conditions in windowless rooms shared with dozens of other workers.
To make an anonymous formal complaint to WORC about any breach of immigration law, including exploitation, complete the online form on the WORC website
or send an email to worccomplaints@gov.ky
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Category: Business, Local News
This wha Wayne, Saunders and rest of loser PACT need to put their focus on; rather than backstabbing each other, and dropping alcohol limit – as if that is going to solve anything.
The issue is, too many businesses bring in labor, paying them little to nothing and leave them to find “housing” wherever they can. Government should stop this practice.
A good example is the company XXXX. They hire people for six months so they don’t have to pay pension. Then they roll them over with a new set. Most of those who finish the six months don’t return home…they stay.
These companies are the major cause of this problem we now see.
This is not only a problem for low income immigrant workers. It has become a huge problem for Caymanians as well. Many of us cannot qualify for a mortgage because we don’t make enough money and/or cannot save a downpayment having to survive in this costly market. Additionally, on top of the outrageously high rents being charged many of the few places actually available for long term rental refuse to take children, although most will take pets with an additional deposit. Like our children are worse than animals. Such an imported mindset. I’ve also seen that most landlords are not Caymaniana by birth/heritage but largely either those with status or PR and also foreign investors using local realtors to manage thier rental properties. Most of these have also shifted their properties – even those inland and away from the beaches, to short-term rentals in order to make more money. The so-called “free” market is not sorting this one out any time soon. The time for rent control and construction of affordable housing came over a decade ago. Both are now urgently needed.
Perspective check: Lots of your own local people born and bread kind experience this crisis with no genuine or impactual assistance – forget all the local mixed Jamaicans on NAU. But why? The concerns for foreignors first as evident in the entire article over your own people who have no other country?
We need 100,000 more permits.
And keep the tourism minimum wage at $4.50.
And little tips are given these days in tourism!
Bahamas now pay better.
Keep it up very soon there will be nothing to save. Caymanians are now leaving and don’t get me wrong, no one cares. I’m a Caymanian and I plan to be gone in the next few months. Its just not worth the stress I have one life and why waste it on a country who has never given a dam about my living situation. I ask all Caymanians to sit and think is it worth your family, your time, you life? I’m sure there will be people who say you said this wrong or I forgot a period but at the end of the day I give up you can have Cayman I choose me and my family.
Good bye.
Agreed. My house is currently up for sale and, once it’s gone, I’m out of here.
Life’s too short to sit in traffic for 1.5 hours in the morning, go to work for 8 hours, then sit in another 1.5 hours of traffic on an island that has nothing to offer apart from the same (less now, really) beaches and overpriced amenities that have been around for 4+ decades and more.
I’ll be back when (if) our government ever decides to take their heads out of the rears of the few rich people lining their pockets and start making meaningful changes for the people that live and work here so they can have some peace of mind.
Simple solution minimum wage needs to go up with the cost of living and inflation. Fuel station attendants been getting $13-15 per hour all over the states. Amazon drivers delivering parcels to people houses are getting $20-25 per hour. Blue collar workers are making 50-80,000 a year. Government needs to put their foot down for their people. Maybe NAU needs to give 2500-3000 per month ?? I heard they have been doing that already for families of 4.
If NAU stopped supporting foreigners, and immigration stopped importing poverty, then maybe Caymanian families in need could receive benefits of the order you reference.
That genuinely solves half the problem. The other issue is housing is treated as an investment commodity rather than a utility. How is a minimum wage worker went to compete with a chinese investor who buys the whole block and sets a fixed price?
The government lately has been more focused on appeasing residential investors rather than being actual public servants and preventing this kind of nonsense. However, this is pretty much an issue all around the world.
Agreed. Its a multi pronged issue that needs to start with how we as a society treat housing and investment in a community by people who are not in the community.
Financial and Economic results in a report on a piece of paper can only carry us so far for so long.
Travel is the major problem. We have a lovely place to let in in Frank Sound but can’t get a tenant because it takes so long to get to work and back.
A guy who works at the airport came to see it, but he works shifts and sometimes evenings, and wouldn’t be able to get to work and back because buses are unreliable.
Politicians and others in the districts don’t want the people to be free. Really, stay in the district and depend on my handouts = votes.
We can always try to get back the Beach Bay Concessions that Moses, Dwayne and Joey (and Roy as Minister if Finance) gave away about 3 or 4 years ago so Govt can build some more affordable housing
I think authority should take in consideration the several dwelling infrastructures that are putting in place and none are to accommodate low income persons. barely do so for middle class people but mainly focusing on the luxury and rich life. so the Island must end up facing crisis one way or the other. So the Gov need to be focused on major situations that are causing problems now and also subjected to a more long term problem
These people are always make it seem to look like is just expats are here feeling the pinch.Caymanian are too.. they too cant find place to live especially the unemployed and low income ones. so Landlords are not only pressing work permit holders.. They are being pressured too by when you see those places out there renting you see Landlords make sure stated no NAU. Yeah Gov money is sure but never ontume most time.
The Government just need to find the solution for the major issues that are causing problems
Pretty soon we will attract the attention of some media entity like the BBC which will liken us to Dubai which they have also profiled as a place building luxury buildings while the laboring classes live in actual squalor.
That’s precisely where things are going. There is no reason for things to evolve differently along the present course of Cayman.
….and right down to vanity coastal developments like Palm Jumeirah.
Alcatraz was an island which made a good prison, because islands can be like that.
CIG. need to regulate rent fee these prices is ridiculously high they have no regulation so the landlords charge at there convince. after hurricane Ivan rent fee went down cause a lot of people leave the island and there was no one to rent to. we need regulation.
As long as we don’t price fix. Price fixing from the government never works as we have dozens of examples to choose from.
A majority of the MLAs are landlords. They would not vote for this.
We seamen had to stay 3 to one room in bunk beds and share bath room with many to make money to send home. The Government didnt care about us and never seek better conditions us..But we kept the Government going by the money we sent home those days that was spent in these islands .
It is true that they are landlords.
Blame Wayne.
Same old, no enforcement no interest to do so. I literally have never seen a law proactively enforced on cayman, you have the money to do it but you don’t and why? because the people supposed to be holding you accountable aren’t being held accountable because they won’t loose their job because they LL scream bloody murder if an expat takes the job. This is the situation with every level of service here. This is what happens when you don’t appoint managers based on skills knowledge and ability but rather their status. I love cayman but what you think is helping us all is hurting us all
Best statement I have read on CNS ever. Thats the whole thing in a nutshell.
the absence of accountability is ridiculous and those who have a good work ethic in government are squashed and afraid to exercise it because jealous managers bully them because it makes them look bad
#worldclass.
Politicians and others in the districts don’t want the people to be free. Really, stay in the district and depend on my handouts = votes.
Just gotta look at Wilbur Welcome quoted in the Compass. What is happening at public beach. “Legitimate Business”. “It would not be “prudent” to enforce the law. This is the crap that is destroying us.
“The official explained that if WORC receives a complaint about substandard living conditions of any work permit holder, it will make initial inquiries and, if applicable, report the matter to the planning department and other relevant government departments in order to carry out any necessary inspections and investigations.”
Based on WORC’s record, the process for responding to each complaint should take about five to 10 years.
Cool, so to trick the automated system, the applicants can list a different B&P and reside somewhere else. Got it.
Will be an interesting place to live the next category 4 storm does a close pass & takes out 75% of habitable apartments.
Disgusting! Cayman needs tenant-protection laws. Many landlords and simply evil and very greedy.
So are the hotels.
The draft is there they just need to pass it .
Also the labour law that protects long time workers.
Has anyone ever realized rents are high
Because greedy Real estate agents usually require 100% commission
Which is usually the first month rent, they source the tenant and apt to suit them afterward the don’t care because it’s about their commission, easy money for them because the market is so short of rental places. Think about that…
We do have all appropriate laws. The protections are in the planning law, the trade and business licensing law, and the immigration law. THE FACT THAT NO-ONE ENFORCES ANYTHING IS THE PROBLEM.
#Leggewasright.
Really. The average return on a rental unit after paying all expenses is about 3-5% p.a. That’s factoring in maintenance, sinking fund for major repairs, water and power.
If the landlord has a mortgage at, say 7% p.a. they can barely cover their costs.
If they charge more than market rent then people won’t rent from them but will go elsewhere.
Slumlords, Public Beach wild west show, McKeeva Bush walking freely among us, Honda drivers. Man this place going south!
It going East actually, Jamaica.
LOL
The Filipino community have been making bunk houses in Cayman prior to any housing shortage. The Indian community actually partner in buying 2-3 bedroom homes and kitting them out for “multi-family” living. The all do this on purpose.
This whole article is stupid.
You must be a landlord.
That is true. They spread outside as well. 20 people come in on weekends to do laundry, get haircuts, congregate, making lives of their neighbors miserable. They turn music on, walk outside in underwear…cultural thing, you know.
Caymanians and Jamaicans, 7:02. Loud music in yards, derelict vehicles, dogs chained up 24/7 and barking constantly, garbage strewn all over the place…..”cultural thing, you know”.
The government could easily pass laws requiring any new developments to mandatorily include a percentage of low income units…but the don’t…many actual 1st world jurisdictions do this. Cayman is a 3rd world jurisdiction with a 1st mask.
so why don’t you do it then, mouth champion.
It’s a waste of time for Worc to even ask where the work permit holders will be living. I understand that they can’t have people camping out on the beach, but in reality a vast majority of permit holders are not living in the place that was listed on the permit, people do move around.
It’s an out of control situation! I’m a Caymanian and I’ve seen some of the deplorable housing situation for low paid work permit holders, I got to take my hat off to them because even though in that situation they are always at work and hardly ever calling in sick, unlike Some world class civil servant entities, not all.
Even though the housing problem is not an easy fix ,I feel the current Pact government and governments in the past have been so caught up catering to the Rich investor they lost any foresight of what this country really needs, especially to cater for the increase in population. Politicians have a favorite word they tend to use quite often which is “sustainable “ Go figure.
Everything seems to be out of control.
Speaking of slums, there are shipping containers with windows behind in the old Deckers parking lot, and just north beside Decekers, and across the road, DART seems to be restoring lower floors of Britannia hotel for human habitation. Did these get planning, fire, and electrical approval?!? Curious how they can state the hotel “no longer exists” in court filings, while simultaneously housing people in those buildings/parking/tennis lots in this way.
This is nothing new, I came here in the 90s and shared a 3 bedroom apartment with 7 other people and was happy to do so , so I could save a little. We just didn’t have social media technology back then to moan about it.
“However, it is not practical upon initial submission of every application for WORC to verify that the accommodation listed is suitable,” the official told CNS in response to our inquiries. “Determining suitability would also require assessment by other government departments.”
No. Determining suitability would require one or more Civil Servants to do their damn job. God forbid.
Suitability is very imported.
Look at what is happening in the Windsor park area with shack added to shack..
Classic way for WORC to say not our problem!
CaymanKind!
In the Cayman Islands the First Rule is, there are no rules!
This is yet another example, which is not a new problem, where a complete lack of oversight, utter ineptitude, and insatiable greed have formed a trinity.
Nobody is being forced to rent anywhere so landlords are not taking advantage of anyone. This is about supply and demand and failed government policies over an extended period of time. Unethical conduct and greed is at the root of most of the problems we face in the Cayman Islands.
My job takes me to lots of properties and I’ve seen people living in spaces no bigger than a cupboard. Pretty heartbreaking.
@ 28/10/2022 at 12:08 pm “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing” hopefully you’re reporting those properties.
The CIG have created a housing price bubble west of Hurley’s roundabout by their sheer inability / unwillingness to tackle the congestion and provide adequate public transport.
If people could live in Breakers, East End etc and get to work within an hour, then you best believe people would start moving out there where there’s peace and quiet. This would increase the supply of rental properties which in turn would soften rents.
How would there be peace and quiet if everybody moved east?
Let them stay in the slums to the west. Have enough headache being in town with the crowds during the work day.
This is downright disgusting and Govt has made no attempt to deal with this problem,no doubt because some of these landlords are probably civil servants or Govt employees or simply well connected.They need to be proactive for once in their life and investigate these properties and offer a guarantee to these poor people that they will not suffer for making a report.
And meanwhile I asked planning if I could build three one-bedroom apartments on my piece of land, to live in one and rent out the other two (0.3 acres), and was told no. I could build a massive 6 bedroom home on this plot but not three small one-bedroom homes. That is why there is no affordable housing – planning laws as they stand dont allow us to build them.
where I live everyone seems to be converting their houses into apartments. The problem with that is now people don’t give a s*** and they just speed up and down our road where all of our children play. That’s why people don’t want to live next door in a residential area to apartment buildings. not to mention the garbage that comes out of these places that no one takes care of when the chickens spread it all over their property.
I honestly don’t know how people live with themselves. At what point is there enough money? I’m hardly rich, but very comfortable. There is no way I would feel comfortable treating poor workers the way some treat them. Karma is real! I have a couple of units that I rent out. I have great tenants and I charge a decent but fair price and they leave me alone for the most part. If you factor in the annoyances that renting out to SO MANY tenants, it’s just not worth one’s time for a bit more money, plus those landlords are being short sighted with the wear and tear on their fully loaded properties. At some point you’re going to have a HUGE expense with so many in a home sharing appliances and overloading everything because they’re trying to save on water, electricity whatever.
Saunders ‘said’ a lot of stuff, but wtf is he actually going to do about it ?
Nothing thats what. As always.
that’s someone else’s job
said it before….Saunders has alot to say…
I am not sure how people did not see this coming… obviously if we are trying to grow the population then we should have been expanding the housing market before!
and nobody predicted this, at least the ‘HNWorth’ which is being targeted for sustainability are being catered to. 💸🙄
That new hotel in GT should be an apartment building, not a hotel.
They are selling units so it’s definitely not just a hotel.
Do you not have a Fire Code? Do these arrangements not violate the Fire Code?
Fire Code is just like the Road Code, hardly any enforcement or common sense. Just pay your fees and no-one cares. Simple but sad really.
Couldn’t an intern enter the housing information into a spreadsheet or database program?
You don’t need a magic system to figure this out.
FFS, I’d volunteer to do it
Yup. One weekend, one software developer, simple program- why 10 years of “system” excuses? Computers can calculate the database in seconds
what caymanians own these properties? must be well connected to scare the people they take advantage of into not reporting or they will get kicked off island.
It will only get worse once the new hotels, Hyatt, Hilton and Indigo open not to mention the ten story hotel downtown George Town.
Developers get duty breaks for high end housing and then government needs to tax the middle class to pay for the worker’s housing…
Profits are privatized, costs are socialized…
this was obvious from 3-4 years ago.
do-nothing-ppm and no-plan-pact have ignored the issue.
but we must face facts…..there is no-one in cig or the civil service that the expertise to address this issue.
When you import poverty, you will end up being another ghetto!! It may sound harsh, but reality is reality!! You can’t blame the employees, they are here because back home is a lot worse. It is the employers that take advantage of these less fortunate individuals. I had a premonition, and things is not looking great for Cayman!!
Import poverty? Who else do you think is willing to work for $6 an hour? There is a reason why the vast majority of hospitality workers are not Caymanian. We seriously need to improve the dreadful minimum wage in this country.
but then your type say bs like caymanians dont want work…tell richman pay good not just fair’
Does Cayman have occupancy load requirements? “Occupancy,” in this sense, is all about egress — getting people out of a building safely in an emergency (if a fire breaks out, for example). The occupancy load of a building is the total number of people allowed in a room or space within a building and is calculated based on the intended use of that space.
Does fire marshal regularly conduct inspections to ensure that the number of people in different areas of a dwelling does not exceed the occupancy load given its arrangement or the maximum occupancy for that space?
Only in vacation rentals. It should be across the board.
Yes.
The fact this is being revealed in this manner should answer your initial question.
Come about because the Rachman landlords doing this are connected and no one is going to take the blue collar expats side against them. Red automation my left foot. How difficult would it be for someone to get off their a&$ and visit some properties declared as places of residence ? Good forbid WORC should have to lift their derrières off their comfy seat and leave their AC office and do their job.
This is what happens when we prioritise housing as an investment more than we prioritise it as a commodity that people need to live.
But then again, shouldn’t we be cheering at this? Let the free market decide and it will solve the problem.
Curious, how does this get reconciled against over 200 “Christian”-identfying, registered-NPO churches?
Maybe they could turn their church halls into dormitories
I would love to see that. genuinely blows my mind how many churches and variants of Christianity and Catholicism we have in such a small population. so much opportunity for housing if we converted a couple, and I’m sure God would bless that, love thy neighbor and all that jazz
No jazz on Sunday.
Have you seen the new HUGE Church of God something or other going up on Anton Bodden in Bodden Town? Built up high so it will increase flooding for its neighbors.
Let’s all say it again, Cayman loves laws but has no interest in enforcement.
Well. Enforcement is perfectly fine, when it’s someone else.
The department of WORC and Ministry of Labour, working in conjunction with Planning, DCI and Public Health have a LOT of explaining to do. This is all a result of broken laws and policies, under their direct management and oversight, with NO enforcement. It is a primary contributor to the existence of derisory wages below levels local persons can accept, and massively contributes to the importation of poverty and associated ills.
This has come about because of the lack of action to low income housing by the Progressives.
Not just the Progressives.
Road infrastructure too.
Solutions + ACTION needed, NOT just talk & sweep under carpet.