Friday's session of the House of Assembly saw a fiery debate on housing.

Shadow Housing Minister Wayne Furbert launched heavy criticism of the PLP Government's record on housing and accused the Government of inaction.

The debate was the result of a motion moved by Mr. Furbert on May 7 stating: “That this Honourable House of Assembly deplores the failure of the Progressive Labour Party Government to produce and act on a comprehensive plan to solve the problems of affordable housing in Bermuda.”

Defending his Ministry, Ashfield DeVent said the PLP was working on a holistic approach to the housing crisis and that all the UBP plans on housing had never really amounted to any solutions.

Mr. DeVent also amended the UBP motion to one stating: “That this House take note and support the PLP Government in the development of a comprehensive plan to solve the problem of affordable housing in Bermuda.”

This amendment passed when a majority of MPs supported the change in a vote.

As the debate continued, dominating most of Friday's session, MPs squared off along party lines.

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said the Government knew there was a legitimate reason why the United Bermuda Party (UBP) had pulled down the (the base land) houses.

She said: “For the Government to suggest anything else is blatant dishonesty.”

Commenting on the remarks made by Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent about tenants not paying their rent. She felt that Bermudians were proud people and if they had not paid there rent, they were often destitute, rather than irresponsible.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin reminded the Government of its 1998 manifesto in which it had promised to help pay people's rent if it was more than a quarter of their monthly earnings.

She said they were a hopeful Government and probably won the election on that promise alone.

“They (the PLP) promised it and then said they couldn't deliver after they had made promises to the people,” she said.

“You shouldn't have made promises to the people that you knew you were unable to keep.”

She suggested that the Government needed to come clean on the matter and tell the people of Bermuda that they made a mistake.

“I would forgive the public if they thought that we were all schizophrenic loonies,” she said.

A point of order was raised and she cleared up the fact that she was not referring to any particular individual member of the house.

“I did not call a name,” she said. “That is the behaviour that would be attributed to having that emotional deficiency.”

She said Mr. DeVent indicated that the BHC had set up 383 mortgages, but she said: “Did the mortgages produce houses?

“Three-hundred and eighty-three gives me nothing. It might have been 500 applicants and these were the only ones who passed the vetting process.

“But did it amount to one brick, one bit of sand, or one bit of mortar?”

She said Government makes rulings where the people affected have to like it or lump it.

“Every one of us lives in a home that we either own or rent, but none of us have nowhere to lie our heads,” said Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin.

“But some people that we represent do not have that luxury.”

Minister of Finance Paula Cox said she would be working closely with the Housing Ministry to look at financial solutions to the housing crisis.

She said there are several quangos that come under the the Housing Ministry. These included the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC), Bermuda Land Development Corporation (BLDC) and West End Development Corporation (WEDCO).

Mrs. Cox said she thought the housing crisis was also enhanced by young professionals “Yuppies” deciding to live in their own flats rather than staying at home with their parents.

She said that it was mostly the need for a car that drove many young people into their owns places.

But this is not an economical use of space, she said, with the parents still living in a two to three bedroom family home.

Shadow Minister Suzann Roberts-Holshouser referred to her six-year-old during her time on the floor.

“By Thursday, he always makes a plan for the weekend,” she said, as she stressed the need for a housing plan.

She said she honoured the eloquent speaker, who spoke before her, Mrs. Cox. But she said she often gets telephone calls from women who are about to be evicted and they are not quite so eloquent.

“But I understood what they were saying,” she said.

“They were about to be evicted or they don't have anywhere to go.

“Or they have no place for their 13-year-old sons in temporary accommodation.”

She reminded the Government that when MPs come to the House it is not about them.

“It is not us who you have to answer to; the people of Bermuda want to know what it going on,” she said.

She said the people don't want to know about the cultural ties with Cuba.

“They want to know where they are going to lay their heads tonight,” said Mrs. Roberts-Holshouser. “We have to know exactly where we are going.”

“If plans are being put into place, let's see them written down. Everyone would like to see them put into action.”

She said Bermuda has social problems and she cited a case in which a woman was paying her rent, but because she was receiving Financial Assistance her landlord took her to court to evict her.

“Where was she going?” she asked.

“We are prepared to work with the Government to ensure that everyone has a safe place to live.”

Opposition MP Jon Brunson said the Government needed to have a plan to provide affordable housing and they needed to look at both the public and the private sector to address the problem.

“People are being disenfranchised by the system,” he said. “They want to believe that you are giving them some hope.

“A plan has a beginning, a middle and an end.”

Minister of Community Affairs and Sport Dale Butler accused the UBP of not acting like the New UBP.

He said comments made by a variety of ministers suggesting that Mr. DeVent sounded like a schoolboy, whose dog ate his homework, and looking like poached eggs was reminiscent of the old UBP.

He told the House that although the UBP had built houses they did not spend the entire 30 years that they were in Government building homes.

“We do have a plan,” he said, “We intend to build houses.

“That's all you need to know. Full stop.”