This week’s announcement that the squatters at Club Med will be forced to move by the end of the month and some will be relocated in another former dormitory — this time the Wyndham’s — is, on the face of it, good news.

But it still begs as many questions as it answers.

First, it is right that the squatters should be moved.

They are in the dormitory illegally, as Government Senators were at pains to point out, and that is clearly wrong. At the same time, they cannot be entirely blamed for taking occupation of the building, which has lain vacant for getting on to 20 years. The major issue has not been the legitimacy — or lack thereof — of the squatting, but where they would go if they were forced out.

Indeed, the longer they remained there, the greater the liability would have been for Government, especially if the building proved to be unsafe, or caught fire.

So the move makes sense, and as the Wyndham building was available as temporary emergency housing, then that is better than nothing.

Still, one wonders just what will happen when and if Wyndham is re-opened. Premier Ewart Brown has made great stock of the need for hotels to make provision for the housing of their largely non-Bermudian staff, and it must be assumed that although Government is apparently leasing the building now, Wyndham will want it back.

Of course, Government may have more housing available by then, but only time will tell.

The second issue concerns the terms under which the squatters will take up the property.

Most seem to be hard working people who simply cannot find or cannot afford the rents the Island’s overheated property market demands.

So one would assume that the squatters will be rented their homes at Wyndham on the basis of what they can afford to pay, or with a Government subsidy.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but Sen. David Burch, who seems to find it difficult to clarify his remarks with journalists at the best of times, has chosen not to volunteer the information.

Some of the squatters will also be moving to the Pembroke Rest Home, according to Works Minister Dennis Lister, where they will join the residents of the Leopards Club complex who were evicted last week.

Again, there are few answers about this, since Government has stated that the home was due to be closed and the senior citizens who were living there have now been moved to the Sylvia Richardson facility in St. George’s.

But how long the new residents will remain at the Pembroke Rest home remains equally unclear.

The truth seems to be that government, having sorely neglected the housing shortage for all of its first term and for the beginning of its second term, keeps getting caught short and is forced into temporary solutions to deal with crises as they arise. And while Sen. Burch does now seem to be moving on a number of projects, it all seems to be too little, too late.

What makes this worse is that because the Government refuses to acknowledge that the economy is overheated, let alone show any willingness to do anything about it, there is every reason to believe that demand will continue to outstrip supply. There is nothing wrong with economic growth — indeed, it is essential — but sensible controls prevent the kinds of financial problems that too many Bermudians are in through no fault of their own.