Column: PLP’s Bell On Housing, Solutions & More
[Opinion column written by PLP Senator Lauren Hayward Bell]
Right now, across Bermuda, too many families are searching for their own piece of the rock. A place to rest their heads. A place to feel safe. A place they can afford.
We live and are engaged with our community, so we see first-hand how this struggle has broken families, impacted children’s education and led to many seeking better opportunities overseas. What we have seen has broken our hearts and made us more determined to fix it.
To us, this housing crisis isn’t a problem in theory, or a story to share for brownie points. It is real, the impact on our people is real and their experiences drive us to make things right for them.
That’s why we are focused on increasing housing supply, removing roadblocks to new developments, supporting the delivery of additional units, looking at ways to make better use of existing housing stock and exploring innovative solutions to help put keys in the hands of as many Bermudians as we can, as quickly as we can.
We are delivering houses and pushing forward with solutions for our people across the island. Yet still the OBA attacks, distracts, and act like they want the work we are doing on behalf of our people to move slower or even stop altogether.
“Not here.”
“Not this way.”
“Not now.”
Dismiss, distract and delay. That’s clearly becoming the OBA way.
Delays have consequences. They mean more families waiting or stuck in crowded unstable places, or forced to continue paying more than they can afford.
Every Bermudian must ask themselves, if every PLP solution is attacked, demeaned or forced to be delayed, what is the OBA plan to actually house Bermudians?
Do they even care?
We know first hand the challenges being faced by our people, so this isn’t a game to us and this isn’t about who can score the most political points.
That’s why we are determined to move projects forward, reduce delays, and increase the supply of housing available to Bermudian families. So the next time the OBA tries to dismiss, distract or delay, ask yourselves, “Do they even care?”
- Senator Lauren Hayward Bell, Junior Minister of Economy & Labour
A core issue to the housing situation is the PLP’s failure to control the economy. Currently it is out of control and far too biased towards IB and expats. In addition the PLP has relaxed the safeguards that were put in place to restrict the properties that could only be bought Bermudians. A good example is the EIRC that allowed those persons to buy properties above $2.5m, a far too low figure. There are many other examples, but the PLP own the problem but don’t understand how or why they caused the problem.