Burch On Manufactured Housing Scheme
Most of the families housed in Government’s emergency prefabricated home scheme have emerged better for the experience and are now living in permanent accomodation, Government Senate Leader David Burch told the Upper House today (Dec. 15).
Sen. Burch said 10 manufactured homes were opened in 2006 in a joint initiative between the Housing, Health and Child & Family Services Ministries and the Bermuda Housing Corporation to assist Bermudian families with the most pressing housing needs.
“The original plan was to have the units in place for 30 months — in January, 2009 I advised that we hd decided to extend the occupancy by two additional years,” he said. “You may recall there are eight units at Morgan’s Point with the remaining two units located at Beacon Hill, Somerset … They are three bedroom/two bathroom units, equipped with a full kitchen and fully connected to water and utilities. At that time the Bermuda Housing Corporation conducted an assessment of the units and confirmed they could be sustained for another two years.”
Sen. Burch said the families participating in the subsidised housing programme engaged in mandatory life skills instruction, educational and vocational assessments and money-management intervention.
“Clients are provided with a structured debt management plan allowing them to clear outstanding debt that has prevented them from obtaining/maintaining housing in the private sector or through the BHC,” he said. “The portolios of the clients received into the residential programme included significant debt, poor money management and poor employment stability, all symptoms or indicators of some social dysfunction.
“As such, stabilisation and growth with these clients has been challenging.”
However, he added, there have been more success stories than failures and various agencies have been able to improve the poor social functioning and  financial skills of many of the programme’s clients.
“Another positive consequence of the residential programme has been family reunification — six families had children returning to the family unit from foster care/kinship care placements,” he said.
Sen. Burch said since the residential programme was launched more than four years ago, most clients have taken advantage of the services provided and are now in better positions than when they began.
“We have seen an improvement in employment stability resulting in an improved management of finances,” he said. “Records indicate an overall 38 percent reduction in client debts — debt clearance also includes paying off bad debt with the BHC. Clients learn ownership of the debts they have incurred and are given the tools to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Sen. Burch said a few clients had been challenged with ongoing “instability and dysfunction”, resulting in unstable employment and increased debt in some instances.
Since the programme’s inception, three clients had been terminated for non-compliance but seven families had either already moved on to permanent housing or would be doing so in the coming week.
“The two units at Beacon Hill are presently being dismantled and the Morgan’s Point site will follow shortly after the relocation of the last remaining family,” he said. “We shall meet the complete relocation of  all tenants by the revised January 31, 2011 deadline.”
Yet another example of poorly thought out PLP Government waste of taxpayer money.
If memory serves correctly, these things were ordered in the summer of 2004. They arrived that fall & sat in storage in W&Es yard, Baileys Bay for almost 2 years. Apparently no thought had been given as to where to put them never mind prepare a site with sewage & water.
Here we are after only four years use & we are being told the these houses are at the end of their useful life.
Anyone who has traveled the US or Canada has seen these homes in ‘trailer parks’. The normal useable lifespan of these things far exceeds 4 years. It is not uncommon to see them, still in good shape, at 20 to 30 years old.
Oh well…whats another couple of million thrown away! Remember it was not just the cost of the prefabbed trailers which would have been around the $100,000 mark base.
A quick calculation show that those trailers cost near enough $5000.00 per month over their 4 year lifespan.
Great fiscal responsibilty PLP.