housing while some 100 houses on the former Baselands will be destroyed.

The children's rights activist said the houses were being destroyed because they interfered with other profitable land development opportunities.

Speaking to Hamilton Lions, co-chairman of the Coalition for the Protection of Children Sheelagh Cooper said the public could no longer ignore what she saw as one of Bermuda's most critical problems, affordable housing.

"Inadequate, overcrowded or nonexistent housing is a feature of many of the cases of child abuse and neglect that come to our attention,'' Mrs. Cooper said.

And she called Government's social assistance programme "woefully inadequate'' and deemed rent subsidies "seriously flawed''.

The former military Baselands, she said, could make a serious contribution to the availability of low cost housing in Bermuda.

"There are in excess of 100 dwellings slated for demolition,'' Mrs. Cooper told Lions. "The housing is in excellent condition if one compares it to the dwellings that those who need it are currently occupying.

"The slated Government position is that this housing should be destroyed because it is substandard. The more likely possibility is that the housing needs to be destroyed because it will undoubtedly interfere with more profitable land development opportunities.'' Mrs. Cooper added it was better for Government in the long-term to incur the short-term additional cost of subsidised housing rather than to go on paying out low rental subsidies.

HOUSING HSG HAMILTON LIONS CLUB CLB