Housing trust begins project for 16 BT homes
(L-R) Vincent Frederick, Chairman of the NHDT Project Development Committee; Christine Burke-Richardson, chairperson of the NHDT Finance Committee; Premier Alden McLaughlin; George Anthony Powell, Chairman of NHDT; Housing Minister Dwayne Seymour; Capt. Eugene Ebanks, Councillor for Housing
(CNS): The National Housing Development Trust (NHDT) is beginning a project in Bodden Town to build 16 affordable homes on a 10-acre site off Lake Destiny Drive, close to 20 existing affordable homes that were constructed in 2012. The homes will be made available for sale at between $110,000 and $125,000 for eligible Caymanians. Applicants must be first-time home-owners, with single applicants earning no more than $36,000, or joint applicants earning no more than $50,400 per year.
At a cost of around $2.5 million, the new development is being funded from previous NHDT house sales, officials said in a release, despite recent revelations by the auditor general that the Trust cannot survive without continued funding from government.
Once applicants have been pre-approved under the Affordable Housing Initiative criteria and financially assessed by the NHDT, they will be referred to local banks for financing.
A ground-breaking took place Wednesday at the site, where government officials gathered to congratulate themselves on the project. NHDT Chairman George Anthony Powell said he was happy to celebrate the ground-breaking for the new homes.
“Our mandate is to provide home-ownership opportunities for Caymanians who would otherwise be unable to buy their own house, so it’s heart-warming to witness the work begin on these 16 new properties,” he said.
“We are here on Lake Destiny Drive, which I think is most appropriate,” Premier Alden McLaughlin said. “By building these homes we are, indeed, improving the destinies of many here in the Cayman Islands.”
Housing Minister Dwayne Seymour said he was very pleased to see the homes were being built in his constituency, though it was not clear if that was by chance or design. He said there was a great demand for affordable homes in Bodden Town. Meanwhile, his councillor, Capt. Eugene Ebanks who represents West Bay Central, said he hoped his district would be the next to benefit in phase 2 of the Affordable Housing Initiative.
The NHDT has been plagued with problems since its inception from corruption and fraud scandals, as well as the original homes being condemned. The first homes were built during the 2001-2005 UDP administration, when Dr Frank McField was housing minister, and they were considered affordable. But some were destroyed in Hurricane Ivan, alongside a massive loss of material. Corruption scandals also plagued that project, with allegations of the misuse of public funds.
The newly designed homes that began being built post-Ivan were considerably more expensive, but the various projects were also plagued with corruption and fraud problems, with board member Edlin Myles convicted of insurance fraud against several of the buyers.
The Trust has also had to manage delinquent tenants, and efforts to demolish the old homes and build new ones, especially in West Bay, have proved challenging because although the properties have been condemned, there is nowhere for many of the people living in the older properties to go.
Category: Local News, Politics
Did Mr Edlin Myles ever go to jail?
I love Alden and this PPM led administration
Can’t reach the Premier for a comment on any issues in these islands but he has time to drive up to BT (in his new Range Rover) and suit for a photo-op
and the same goes for every one of those ministers and MLAs paid like princes for part time work
Talk about out of touch with the people
Acting like they are some pomp dignitaries or high ranking world leaders, being chauffeured. You want to save the government money, then drive yourself Mr Premier. For a man who talks about competency with the economy I beg you show us how competent you are behind the wheel of your own vehicle and stop wasting money paying someone to drive you around.
I’ll tell you one thing, you want Alden’s attention just tell him that the government will be honored or that there will be a cameraman, we’ll see just how “Shy” our Premier is then.
Diogenes
The cost of the project is expected to be 2.5 million with homes to cost $110,000 to $125,000…. according to that budget each home will cost an estimated $156,250 each. The trust will be in negative up to $740,000 after this project…. there must be a more sensible way for this to be handled.
Why? In a lot of places around the world, if you don’t have the funds to take on a mortgage and maintain a house and property you rent. There is no shame in renting (just like there is no shame in taking public transportation) but in Cayman it seems that renting and driving to work on a public bus is shameful and some indication of someone being poor (instead of perhaps being financially smart and responsible).
How are those people going to maintain their house and properties? What is going to happen if they don’t maintain the house and trash it out? I can already see overgrown yards filled with junk cars.
Also, please don’t allow people who apply for these homes to have monthly car payments on brand new SUVS. Owning a brand new vehicle is not a necessity but a luxury!
Renting is not shameful. It’s just better to pay for something that is going to be yours as you could be a great tenant and at the near end of your lease the landlord decides to not rent anymore you will end up homeless or in the position to seek another rent which has become difficult in Cayman. What I think is that “Rules” should apply for these homes as if it is not abided by the buyers and complaints are made by the community they can be warned and action can be taken to keep the community clean. As I see in some agreements it states what you can do and not do on the property and by signing the person(s) are agreeing to comply before purchase.
I agree the homes should be given to people who deserve it. But when applying and if the person have loans such as new car loan it’s unlikely they will qualify.
“Why? In a lot of places around the world,” they also do low-income housing because it has been found to be in the best interests of society. (Promoting greater community involvement, better results in school if children are more settled, greater familial/generational wealth accumulation, etc.) – See, when you started looking at “a lot of places around the world” you almost answered your own question.
why not allow mobile homes here? they say it a hurrivanevrisk, but nobody has more hurricanes than florida where it is allowed? i am sure if that law was challenged in court to not allow, it wouldnt stand up? or is it law? come on mla’s help your poor people for once????
Yes, let us look to Florida trailer parks to judge the suitability of mobile homes in hurricane prone areas. – Which is why we don’t allow mobile homes in Cayman.
Building ghettos one vote at a time.
The big team should have first dealt with the front of the division which is really a slum before breaking ground further in to attract a bigger slum
so true 12;51…. so true,, i only hope now these homes are only for CAYMANIAN BY BIRTH>>CAYMANIAN BY PAIN NOT SO CALLED CAYMANIANS BY PLANE>>>hope and pray for this PR SHIT TO FINISH…STOP..come to an end..we cant go no where else and call that our home with out being tortured..definatley not in JAMAICA>>>dont care who likes me from who dont,,we wil just see…
Jeez, if you guys actually got off your a$$es and did something constructive instead of moaning all the time and expecting handouts, you would be surprised just how much your lives can improve. Only you can do that, no one else can do it for you. Go on, now find another excuse why you can’t…..
From the photo, I’d assume they have stealthily broken ground on a new dump in Bodden Town.
i make 80 to 100k ci a year and am happy with my one bedroom…bath and kitchen. tiny home…big savings/ living?
Housing trust lacks policy direction
Cayman News | 30/03/2015 | 13 Comments
https://caymannewsservice.com/2015/03/housing-trust-lacks-policy-direction/
See how hard the Captain is working he’s hardly holding the shovel up . How many millions of dollars this housing project is going to cost the Taxpayers this time ? I think the last housing project cost the Taxpayers 3 or 4 million C.I $ to build about 10 , 100 thousand dollars homes . That’s those politicians hard at work spending your money , they won’t spend their own like that .
whos the guy on the right. I’ve not seen him before.
Definition of “black hole”
A combined income of 50k a year is more than enough to get your own mortgage.
Limit should be 30k.
You miss the point. They may still have to get a mortgage too buy these anyway. The theory behind this is that no one is building houses that someone earning $30-$50K a year can afford. I suspect the banks will be reluctant to lend more than 3 x annual earnings – this is designed to produce houses for sale to people at $110K-$125K in the hope that those without savings can get a mortgage that they can use to buy one. Of course, if that’s all you earn, the amount of pressure on your earnings just to buy food and pay utilities is significant – the slightest hiccup in your employment or health and you are headed for a mortgage default.
Thank you Mr Premier and the great Unity team. You are always trying to help us Caymanians. Thank you and you are trying to make Cayman great again!
Government PR stooge. Your lack of morals is shameful.
Hahaa is that the lady bus driver who is always talking about “her Premier”
here comes another ghetto filled with folks who will never pay a cent in repayments….
If they do not then the Bank that financed their mortgage will repossess the house. Then likely NHDT will repurchase and resell to another more grateful owner. This is not government acting as a bank. Hence the availability of funds to build more homes.
What about the existing “low income homes” which were built in Bodden Town and which stayed empty for so long. Are they all now occupied or still empty?
don’t ask awkward questions!
Yes. Why not visit and see for yourself?
CNS there’s no mention of the 20 existing homes there built in 2012. How did they perform and were any of the same people involved?
CNS NOTE: Please see first paragraph.
The ’20 existing affordable homes’ that were completed in 2012 were kept locked up for a long period of time as the site/homes did not have a legal access from what I recall. Did the access ever get regularized and if so when?
I dont get it, 16 homes on 10acres doesn’t make sense, unless additional phases are planned.
They are currently only building on a portion of the land. The existing house lots they’ve built there are just over a tenth of an acre. Basically the property looks like a sub-development that they’re doing a stage at a time.
Place to grow tomatoes and cattle so they don’t have to pay the cartel shop prices
They should call it Handout City.
What a fleecing we are in for with this
Yes …. here we go again.. imported poverty.
How can a Caymanian be imported??????????
Well how it works is they come here, we give them unlimited work permits, then we give them PR because they are “thinking about purchasing a property – said low-income homes”, then we give them Status. They then head down to the hospital for free medical because they convince NAU to give them insurance via CINICO, then over to the schools for free education, then over to NAU for some cash. They dont license their vehicles, get setup to sell numbers and certain other high demand commodities, some may even start a church or illegal business. All the while they have become the new Caymanians the politicians love and cherish so much because they will also sell their vote and their loyalty. All this before their accent begins to sound remotely like a Caymanian. POW! Welcome to the new Cayman.
You cannot be serious. Have you even looked at the requirements for PR?
Can you please provide a link CNS for this idiot to read and then hopefully stop spreading false news.
CNS: Here’s the link on the DOI website.
Do you even know how much you have to pay annually to renew your PR before qualifying to apply for status? The applications are not free either.
People who qualify for PR and stay long enough to apply for status have to have money.
Did you miss the memo ? They haven’t been paying it and for those who do it is normally their employer paying it
You got a part wrong. The bit about PR. I think you will find the preferred methods are:
1. Marry a Caymanian (also a well-known stepping stone to US residency);
2. Buy status (certain immigration staff still on required paid leave for their involvement in this I believe) ; or
3. spend enough time off island now and then such that it resets their term limit clock and their 9 years starts over.
12.51pm Thanks you…..you know exactly what’s going on… I just wish our government would wake up to our sorry plight.
“Paper Caymanians”, idiota.
Very easily. Most Are. Best way to is give them a Cabinet status grant with no vetting and then invite their whole family to join them with no vetting. It seems to be one of the few things our government has proved itself to be very good at.
9.45am… Caymanian …. yea right!!!! R U sleeping??
The foundation of Cayman is built on poverty,
Look at how people here lived even up into the 70s and 80s
Don’t forget your roots
Our roots.