The state agency established to provide affordable housing solutions is under the scrutiny of Leader of the Opposition Bishop Joseph Atherley who Tuesday questioned whether it was set up to give the government an avenue to score political points.
He called for clarity on the role of the National Housing Corporation (NHC) as he made queries about Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) Inc. The Opposition Leader said it appears HOPE is doing what the NHC is mandated to do.
HOPE Inc. offers a one-stop shop for would-be homeowners, including mortgage financing, attorney services and house insurance at low rates. Under the three tiers of the project, houses will be constructed for those with salaries between $2,000 and $8,000 a month.
“I heard complaints, in this very Chamber, about perceived marginalization of the NHC and its role and I still think that that is an issue and it needs to be better clarified,” said Bishop Atherley.
“I have a view that this administration has embarked upon a policy – which was applied to politics and is now being applied to government – of what I call parallelism. That is, Mr Speaker, in an effort to create a context for better control, in an effort to perhaps get around regulations a bit, in an effort perhaps not to subject yourself to as full as scrutiny as perhaps you would desire, you create parallel entities because you want to achieve political ends as well as governmental public service ends.
“So you have your National Housing Corporation but you create an entity called HOPE and HOPE does, in the immediate instance, what NHC perhaps would normally do if it were in a position so to do.”
Minister of Housing Dr William Duguid told the House that the NHC’s experience in housing projects “has not been stellar and has not been the best” and it would not have been the best choice for the HOPE programme.
He said that the NHC’s last project in Parish Land, Christ Church did not turn out well.
“They did 150-200 houses, brought in contractors and for years those houses remained unoccupied and started to deteriorate. Up to this day, we’re still having to go and fix problems that contractors brought on by the National Housing Corporation did,” Dr Duguid said.
“If the National Housing Corporation cannot really handle, or had difficulties handling a project of that size, what difficulty would they have handling a project when we’re looking to do 2,500 [houses]? The capacity of the National Housing Corporation to handle that large a project was not there.”
He said it was against that background that the HOPE project was created.
The housing minister stressed that the programme is a joint venture in which Government provides the land and facilitates a private entity to build and put in infrastructure.
HOPE provides the land at no cost to the buyer who only pays for the house construction. Each owner allows HOPE to install photovoltaic (PV) systems on their roof, rent-free for 20 years. At the end of 20 years, HOPE gives the homeowner the PV system.
In addition to the HOPE Direct programme which caters to those making no more than $4,000 per month and HOPE Premium which targets those making $4,000 to $8,000 per month – both of which have already been launched – HOPE Basic is to be launched to provide housing for persons earning up to $2,000 per month.
“Every income strata, everybody is going to get a chance,” Minister Duguid said.
(IM)
