Unsatisfactory living conditions at a Lefroy House cottage are the direct responsibility of Hope Homes management, Health Minister Patrice Minors said yesterday.

Responding to recent stories about shoddy maintenance and sanitary conditions at the cottage, Mrs. Minors said that the interior of the building was in fine condition when Government allowed registered charity Hope Homes to relocate their mentally challenged clients there.

But Opposition MP Louise Jackson dismissed Mrs. Minors? statement on Lefroy House as ?unsatisfactory?.

?As they were considered temporary tenants, and as they understood that, it was their responsibility to maintain and upkeep the interior of the premises, Hope Homes has not kept up their responsibility and have not made arrangements for anyone else to do so,? the Minister said.

She added that Hope Homes had been offered temporary occupancy of two buildings at Lefroy House because the charity?s original building in Hamilton had been declared uninhabitable.

?I wish to make it very clear indeed, that it was a direct result of the administrators of Hope Homes allowing this Hamilton building to deteriorate to such an extent that the place was declared unsafe and uninhabitable,? she said.

Government?s agreement three years ago to house the residents at Lefroy House temporarily was based on the charity?s promise that they would renovate their building and bring it up to standard in the short term.

?It was with this ?temporary? agreement that Government allowed them to move rent-free into a cottage, and into rooms on the top floor of one of the buildings on the Lefroy House property.

?Both of these premises were in fine condition when the residents moved in with the proviso that Hope Homes would be responsible for the maintenance of the interior and Government would retain responsibility for structural and outer building maintenance.?

Top floor residents of Lefroy House had to join their fellow clients in the cottage when the roof of the main building was damaged by last year?s hurricane Fabian. ?Granted,this made conditions in the cottage cramped but, I reiterate, the interior of the cottage was otherwise in fine condition,? Mrs. Minors continued.

The Works Ministry later determined that the Lefroy House roof had rotted and until it is completely replaced the building cannot be occupied, she said.

?Plans are being drawn for this major capital project in this fiscal year, although the actual repair is not expected to begin until the latter half of 2005.?

She said two days following media stories highlighting the conditions at the facility, technical officers went to Lefroy House to investigate and found a ?very different picture? from what had been described.

?Although we can confirm that there are some plumbing issues that need urgent attention, in general we found tidy, sanitary rooms ? very different from what was depicted in those published photographs,? the Minister said.

?We were informed by the matron that Opposition MP Mrs. Louise Jackson and a reporter had arrived unannounced at the cottage on a day that staff just happened to be spring cleaning.

?The alleged ?buckets of unidentifiable slop? contained used dish water that had been dipped out of a kitchen sink because the sink?s drain was clogged. The water is apparently collected throughout the day and disposed of all at once at the end of the day.?

She said her Ministry was now working with the Works Ministry to ensure that plumbing repairs are carried out.

And the Minister reported that her Ministry?s investigation had identified ?several challenges with respect to the management of Hope Homes? and will soon be holding talks with the charity?s board.

?We do not believe that the best interests of these mentally challenged residents are being served under the current conditions but we intend to give Hope Homes and their director, Mrs. Ellen Douglas, an opportunity to determine how they want to move forward.?

Asked why the Ministry did not monitor conditions at the cottage given prior concerns about the charity?s handling of its own building, Mrs. Minors said: ?I can accept that and I can also say we have been doing that just recently.

?Our concern at that time was for the immediate care of those residents. And we wanted to give them an opportunity to prove themselves. And we came to the rescue and managed to find a facility for them on a temporary basis.?

She said the charity receives an annual Government grant of $160,000 plus $980 per client.

?To deflect all of the problems that Bermuda?s mentally challenged have faced to Hope Homes is unsatisfactory,? Mrs. Jackson said.

?Government has a responsibility to care for its indigent, mentally challenged Bermudians and they have known of the conditions in that cottage since October. Surely they must have known that 14 people living in a cottage which is only meant for six or seven people tops, is not on.?

Mrs. Jackson the Opposition spokesperson for Community and Cultural Affairs said that the Minister had known for months about unsatisfactory conditions at the West End facility.

An October memorandum written by an officer in the Environmental Health section of the Ministry of Health, and provided to , warned that conditions at the cottage at Lefroy House were unsatisfactory.

And a March 10 report from Fire Chief John Pacheco pointed out a number of fire safety violations.

?The Health Minister has known about these reports and have done nothing. The buck stops with the Health Ministry,? Mrs. Jackson said.

?All I know is that Government has a responsibility for the care and protection of its people - particularly those who can?t take care of themselves. I just wonder what the Ministry would have done if it had been a house full of children.

?It just makes me wonder what her feeling is about mentally handicapped people. There were people who were saying loudly and clearly that this situation is unsafe and not fit for human habitation.?