Affordable housing that is almost two years late was explained by the Minister of Public Safety and Housing in the Senate on Wednesday.

Minister David Burch presented information on the May 31 ground-breaking of 108 units at Harbour View Village, which was promised to lottery winners almost two years ago.

At the ground-breaking, Minister Burch admitted the plans had changed and though site clearing would begin the same day, building would not start until September.

In the Senate, Minister Burch hit back at those who called the May 31 announcement a “photo-op” and the “criticism for criticisms sake”, as he produced a revised timeline.

He said: “For those who think last week was just a ‘photo op’ let me set out the timeline for this project. Groundbreaking May 31.

Six to eight weeks of site clearing, excavation and grading- concurrent with that is the removal of a 500,000 gallon underground storage tank and contract documentation preparation.

“August 2007, contract documents out to tender to invited contractors. Construction begins in September 2007.”

To explain the delay of two years, Minister Burch said: “It has taken longer than originally anticipated to get to this point, but my focus is on the way forward. Anyone who has ever engaged in any type of construction will know that there are always unforeseen hurdles to overcome.”

Some of those hurdles included the bankruptcy of Bermuda Homes for People which initiated the building, problems with tenants on 12 acres of the 16 acre building site and Bermuda Land Development Company (BLDC) refusing to sell the land.

However before these issues were tackled, 98 lottery winners were awarded homes on June 5, 2005 and were promised two-bedroom and three-bedroom townhouses. Because the land for building has decreased from 16-acres to 4.4-acres, the plans for the development had to change from townhouses to apartments.

The housing units, however, have remained the same with 108 units available, 60 two-bedroom, 36 three-bedroom and 12 four-bedroom apartments. Because the original design had 200 homes on the 12-acres, 100 of which were to be sold at market price to pay for the affordable homes, the Government has now had to find the money elsewhere.

The other properties that will support the affordable homes include the $3.8 million dollar sale of Westcott to Trinity Contractors for the three acres of land, plus the 54 middle-class homes and the 11 rehabilitated Southside cottages.

Yesterday Minister Burch concluded that the Harbour View Village was only the beginning of further projects.

He said: “For this Government, for this Ministry, for this Minister, failure is not an option...not for the Harbour View Village or any other project designed to house our people.

“Harbour View Village is just the tip of the iceberg and as the countless number of projects that are currently in development come to fruition I shall not hesitate to share them with you.”