Bermuda is breeding a generation of ?nomads? because of sub-standard wages and a lack of affordable homes, a children?s charity has warned.

Sherri Simmons, from the Coalition for the Protection of Children, said homeless parents ? and in particular, single mothers ? were increasingly having to move their children from one base to another.

?We run the risk of having a whole generation that has grown up in a nomadic lifestyle simply because they have to move from place to place to place to place,? she told

?It?s not the traditional homelessness. You go and you?ll stay with your mother for a little while, then you?ll move in with a friend and then you move in with an uncle.

?It?s literally a nomadic existence and that?s what we are seeing with more and more families.?

According to Ms Simmons, the trend could have a devastating long-term effect on children.

?A lot of the disruptiveness that we are seeing, particularly in young people, comes from this situation of having to move,? she said.

?There are children in their very young lives who are all of two or three years old who have been moved six times.?

The Coalition, one of a number of agencies helping the homeless across the Island, has ten families in need of a permanent base at the moment. ?They are moving from pillar to post,? she said.

The charity has found that many single mothers are forced to live together to afford rent.

?A lot of them are crammed into apartments, two and three families,? said Ms Simmons. ?With single mothers they?ll have to band together in order to get an apartment.

?Some of that is done on the sly.

?Generally speaking, landlords are reluctant to rent to more than one family so you have one family get in there and maybe they have to sneakily get someone else to come in there in order to just make the rent.

?It?s an untenable situation but unfortunately a lot of otherwise honest people have been forced into this position simply because they can?t meet the rent. Bermuda is an extremely expensive country.?

Ms Simmons said older generations were increasingly unable to provide shelter for children and grandchildren because they too were earning low wages.

?People are coming through our doors who would have traditionally relied on their parents, their grandparents etc. If you see a young lady in her 20s, that young lady?s mother is often in the same position that she?s in.

?All these generations are working ? none can afford the rent. The lack of affordable homes is just really the crux of a lot of these issues.?

She added: ?I?m certainly not saying that there isn?t an aspect of personal responsibility. Sometimes people do make poor choices. But the overall issue is that it?s very hard to survive in Bermuda if you are not making a certain wage. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Bermuda living on sub-standard wages. There is no official poverty line in Bermuda or a minimum wage.

?We have a considerable number of people in Bermuda who are employed on a full-time basis but the wages that they are receiving just aren?t liveable wages.?

Ms Simmons said hope was on the horizon ? in the form of Major Glenn Brangman at Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC).

?We have been working together and it?s really been a good relationship thus far. I can definitely say in my meetings that I have had with Major Brangman that we are working with a renewed spirit. Both organisations want to see the same thing - we want to see Bermudians housed.?

The Ministry of Works and Engineering and Housing did not respond to requests for comment. Up-to-date figures on the number of homeless people in Bermuda could not be obtained from the Government. The 2000 census recorded 65 people living in shelters and 39 without any home.

The Coalition for the Protection of Children helps more than 800 people a year. Contact it on 295-1150.