CIG refuses to release task force housing report

(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has refused to release a report it conducted examining the country’s critical housing problem that was supposed to help shape a new policy and provide some insight into solving this pressing issue. A shortage of affordable homes for both Caymanians and expat workers to buy or rent is reaching a crisis point and impacting the economy and society on many levels.

However, although the UPM government has declared this issue a priority, it has made no significant progress toward solving it.

As the relentless overdevelopment of the island for high-end properties continues, a catalogue of issues has converged to make the acquisition of property for young Caymanians well out of reach and make renting appropriate accommodation almost impossible for even middle-income workers.

Speaking in parliament last month about initiatives to encourage private sector developers to build affordable homes, Housing Minister Jay Ebanks told his colleagues that his ministry was still working on developing the Cayman Islands’ first-ever Public and Affordable Housing Policy and a 10-year Strategic Plan.

“The initiatives under this policy and plan aim to tackle issues such as how to incentivise the private sector to build affordable homes,” he said in response to a question from Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart. “This policy and plan are expected to be completed before the end of this year… Cabinet has approved a new, modernised government mortgage guarantee programme.

“This programme features updated criteria that are in line with the current housing market, as it is extremely difficult, and I dare say impossible, for Caymanians to purchase a home at or below the CI$200,000 mark,” the minister said, referring to the old maximum purchase price of a property under the original Government Guaranteed Home Assistance Mortgage (GGHAM) programme.

Ebanks said discussions with financial institutions are underway, and the ministry aims to launch this programme by the end of this year. But he did not mention the status of the task force report or its findings or the progress of the broader policy. He made no mention of the work that has also been done by a group of consultants from the UK who were engaged last year to help with this policy or the results of a public survey they conducted earlier this year.

Some time ago, CNS submitted a number of questions to the ministry and asked for the report undertaken by a task force of cross-ministry representatives to be released. But officials refused to respond and directed us to make an FOI request, which was made to the Cabinet Office, which holds the document.

After breaching the law and extending its time to respond well beyond the period set down in the legislation, the office has refused to release the report. While CNS has appealed that refusal, we anticipate it will be some time before the report sees the light of day.

According to the letter of refusal received by CNS, Cabinet Secretary Sam Rose stated that the document was being denied because, among other things, it was “exploratory work to identify areas that could be further reviewed, researched or actioned to assist Cabinet’s deliberative process” in relation to the country’s housing needs.

While the government is still supposedly considering developing high-rise affordable housing, at the moment, the only high-rise development being approved is luxury or hotel accommodation.

The housing shortage is being fuelled by various issues, including the country’s outdated planning legislation and the government’s failure to tackle the public transport problem. This was illustrated by the recent refusal of an application by Legoland Real Estate for a 10-storey apartment block on Boilers Road in George Town. The authority turned the 189-bed project down because of the volume of traffic it would generate along the narrow and heavily used road.

The block would have had over 250 parking spaces. With no amenities in the tower itself and poor amenities in that area, the residents would be forced to use their cars frequently, not just for work but for all their needs, impacting already congested areas around it, such as Walkers Road and Seafarers Way.

While the apartments were not designed as affordable homes, the sheer volume of units might have impacted the significant housing problem in George Town. The lack of both affordable and appropriate accommodation for the capital’s growing population of workers, rich and poor, is impacting the recruitment and retention of staff.

It is also creating ghettos as landlords continue to increase the number of people they allow to rent individual units in breach of various laws, putting pressure on everything, from garbage generation to parking.

As the clock now ticks down towards the next general election, expected in April next year, the UPM has failed to make any noticeable headway in any of the areas it promised to tackle. There have been almost no advances at all in improving public transport, and immigration reform remains stalled and unchanged, while the recent end of ReGen has also set back the country’s growing waste pile.

It is also clear that the issue of housing is now also unlikely to be tackled, while the public is kept in the dark over the scale of the problem.