Anchorage Road residents have been ordered to move out of their homes in three weeks.

But many residents said yesterday that they will refuse to be forced to move against their will from their own homes.

“I don't want to move and I'm not moving,” said Karnell Robinson, who lives with his wife and two children in a building that was renovated just three years ago.

He thought if he was made to move out, then it could split his family up.

“Now my Mrs. has said she will go her way and I will go mine. It's the stress we're being put under... The Housing Corporation once asked her to go around to her mother's for eight to nine months,” he said.

“The conditions here are excellent. There are no problems with the environment or the atmosphere. Both my daughters like it here.”

And in his monthly lease from BHC the condition of the home is listed as a “good premises”.

He said that his family lived in the BHC's “Sandhurst” property near Slippery Hill, St. George's until it was damaged in Hurricane Fabian.

When it was damaged, BHC informed him that he was going to moved from his two-bedroom home to a one-bedroom place near Union Street in Hamilton, he said.

He said he asked BHC to meet with Sandhurst tenants, but they asked him “why should they?”

They also told him to “stop listening to what other people said”.

He said the BHC told him he would only be at Union Street for “six to seven months” but ended up living in Union Street until May 1, 2004, when they moved into Anchorage Road to start a new life.

Opposition Senate Leader Kim Swan said yesterday: “ (I do) not feel that Government has handled (Anchorage Road) properly. In regard to the buildings being renovated, residents feel they are moving to a place that needs renovation. I do not see the logic in moving them from a renovated to an un-renovated home.

“The other main issue is that BHC are telling them to take it or leave it. This makes absolutely no sense. It appears BHC feels they can operate outside the same rules and laws that landlords must follow and run by ...reasonable notice for eviction.

“My heart goes out to these people. It is criminal the way they have been treated. Try as they might, they cannot get their MPs down here who have turned their backs on their constituency.

“(BHC) like to belittle people and rough up the community contrary to their original plan. We are fighting to save a community. I am mad at the way they have been treated.

“Why does Government have to move people from a renovated home during a housing crisis? There is a derelict house next door that could have been renovated long ago. They had a hidden agenda here - to sell them off to the highest bidder.

“But (BHC) met more opposition than they bargained for, and are trying to reach the same objective by another route.

They wanted to move these houses to the private sector by any means necessary. They seem duty bound to get their pound of flesh on this issue.

“What I'm about to do is to hold out hope that a lawyer can work pro bono to fight for the rights of these people,” Sen. Swan said.

The Bermuda Housing Corporation sent some residents letters this week saying they must be out of their homes by October 15.

A copy of the letter from BHC property operations manager Michael Hollis was obtained by The Royal Gazette.

“We have arranged trucking to assist with the moving of your furniture and personal belongings,” the letter said.

Mr. Hollis advised tenants that their items should be “boxed and move ready for this move. You will be moved to a two bedroom house in Warwick. Please be sure, that all of your belongings are taken the day of the scheduled move, because we will not be responsible for anything that is left behind by you or a family member.”