the housing shortage by providing 100 new houses to low-income families.

And Government will renovate a further 100 derelict homes which will be made available at the lower end of the market.

Housing Minister Wayne Furbert said the new homes will be built in clusters of four and will be distributed throughout the Island.

Government expects the 100 new dwellings to cost in the region of $17 million.

Mr. Furbert said although the homes will be built primarily on Government-owned land, Government could spend up to $3 million purchasing additional land.

The four-unit buildings, which are to be costructed using traditional Bermuda concrete block, are expected to be built on quarter-acre lots.

And Mr. Furbert said the homes will be built as two- or three-bedroom dwellings, with the added feature that some two-bedroom homes can be expanded to include a third bedroom.

"Wherever possible, the site selection will take into account schooling, transportation and other needs,'' he said.

"Government hopes to have the first homes completed six months after ground is broken -- and the remainder of the 100 should be completed within the year.'' He said the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) expected rents for the new units to be below the maximum allowable rent -- currently $1,310 for two bedrooms and $1,600 for three -- under the Housing Allowance Programme (HAP).

"This means tenants receiving housing allowances should be spending about 25 percent of their household income on rent,'' he added.

Mr. Furbert added that the BHC expects to identify about 100 derelict homes to be renovated with the help of Corporation financing which will then be rented at the lower end of the market.

The BHC believes there is a "high probability'' that 25 already identified refurbished units will be made available to low-income households, he said.

A further 25 homeowners who have responded to BHC advertising appeals are also expected to get BHC help and their homes will be made available to its target group of tenants as well.

"By the end of next month, work on these two initiatives will have advanced to the point of enabling a good estimate to be made of the total number of rental units that will be made available,'' he said.

Govt. plans low rental homes Mr. Furbert added: "It is expected to be close to 100.'' Mr. Furbert said 74 owners of derelict homes have been in contact with the BHC about renovating their buildings with the assistance of refurbishment incentives and financing from the BHC's Private Sector Mortgage Programme.

But Shadow Housing Minister Renee Webb said she was sceptical about the proposal and said the timing -- within weeks of the General Election -- was suspicious.

"It just does not seem very realistic and raises more questions than it answers,'' she said. "They says this can be done within a year, but all construction companies are already out doing jobs in the private sector. They don't say where the building sites will be.

"Where is the funding coming from? It is not in the Budget. Are they going to borrow when Government's borrowing is already pretty high?'' Ms Webb said that the moves were coming too late to make a difference. She said Southside homes, some of them now demolished, could have been used for emergency housing. Instead they are being renovated and put up for sale.

"Clearly anything that is done to alleviate the the housing crisis is positive,'' she said. "But this is very bad timing three months before a General Election when they have not been responding to it until now and when they first denied there was a crisis.'' NEW HOMES -- One of the proposed new Government housing units.