A seniors housing complex is to be built on green land near the Rockaway Ferry terminal by Morgan's Point.

Government has leased a three-acre section of woodland from the Bermuda Land Development Company primarily for independent living units for seniors.

Bermuda Housing Trust (BHT) will build the homes for affordable rent but detailed plans will be drawn up after consultation with the Department of Works and Engineering and Age Concern.

BHT chairman Ronald Simmons said it was part of a five-year plan which included a new development every year to meet the increasing demand for affordable housing for seniors.

“Hopefully by the end of this year we can break ground,” he said.

He was unspecific on cost, timetable or numbers able to be housed but said if it followed similar BHT developments it could house up to 240 people.

The Bermuda Housing Corporation will handle means-tested applications to live at the site.

There are currently 188 seniors on the housing waiting list.

Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent said the development might also include some housing for younger people.

Mr. DeVent said building on the green space had not been thought about lightly.

“But we require homes for seniors,” he said.

“It is in an ideal location for seniors, it's close to the ferry.

“I will continue to redevelop land but this is going to have to be purpose-built.”

He said the small wood was made up of casuarinas and is fenced off from the public.

The plan has been on the drawing board for some time and will link the seniors complex with the Rockaway estate as one community which is why the road to the ferry snakes round the site rather than driving through the middle.

But Mr. DeVent told The Royal Gazette Government was no nearer to coming up with a clean-up plan for the adjacent Morgan's Point peninsula of polluted land and indicated the former US Navel annexe could be kept as a land bank.

Mr. DeVent said new estimates of the costs of the environmental clean-ups were coming in but Government had to assess whether the cheaper technologies would do the job.

“It will be quite a while and quite some dollars before people are able to live on it.

“We are looking at all the options. It's somewhat new for this country - an environmental clean-up.

“I would not like to see anybody rush in and not do it properly if we are hoping to put people there.”

Former Housing Minister Terry Lister had called for Morgan's Point to be Bermuda's fourth residential hub but Mr. DeVent said he favoured mixed use including industrial space for the 250 acre site which borders Southampton and Sandys.

“It's open space. Personally I would like to see it remain undeveloped for as long as we can and keep it as a land bank for the future.

“People think just because there is land - go build there. But the future is going to require things be done.”

He said Bermuda's housing problem was not simply about building units but social problems such as divorce added to the numbers needed.