The Housing Minister said the only way to build was up, offering more details on a five-storey mixed use commercial and residential building in the City.

Speaking in the Senate on Monday, Works and Engineering and Housing Minister Sen. David Burch added to a statement he made in July 2004 about BHC?s plan to build a City apartment block.

?One conceptual project within the City is for a mixed commercial and residential five storey building,? Sen. Burch said. ?The first two floors will be commercial and the other three residential.

?Future developments will have to maximise land use with mid- to high-rise residential units,? Sen. Burch said. ?Expect to see more of these in the future. ?Some will be owned, some will be rental. These are all concepts that are used in other jurisdictions,? he said.

Sen. Burch said the mixed use was to generate the required cash flow to recover the cost of the build.

Government will start building 38 units at Perimeter Lane, Pembroke, in June at a cost of around $15.6 million, he said.

However, Opposition Senator Kim Swan said residents at Perimeter Lane would be disappointed BHC was going ahead with the development without making modifications.

The Minister also revealed there were 305 people on the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) waiting list last month.

?At the end of February there were 135 on the emergency housing list and 170 on the regular housing list,? Sen. Burch said.

This is an increase of 32 people from October 2005 when the BHC emergency housing list stood at 103.

In July 2004 BHC had 64 people on its urgent list. The Minister said BHC had three projects nearing completion, including, 16 units at Anchorage Road, St. George?s ? set to be complete in September 2006, eight at Butterfield Lane, Sandys and the placement of ten pre-fab homes in Sandys by the end of April ? eight at Morgan?s Point and two at Beacon Hill, Somerset.

But Sen. Swan accused the Housing Minister of ?to-ing and froing? about putting homes at Morgan?s Point after he initially went against Premier Alex Scott when he said nothing would be built there. ?Those people housed in the manufactured housing will remain on the emergency housing list so they can be permanently housed when available,? he said. ?Not everyone will ever own a home. Not everyone wants to own a home and its not Government?s responsibility to provide for everyone to own a home. However, it is Government?s job to provide basic shelter for everyone.?

More houses will be built by joint public/private initiatives ? like the Loughlands Estate in Paget, for which 259 people had put their names on the list for since last Friday, he said.

?We need the right mixture of affordable and market price units would continue, as the surplus from such projects would be used to fund more affordable housing projects,? Sen. Burch said. ?BHC will continue its zero policy on illegal acts,? he said.

Two hundred to 300 maintenance calls were taken at BHC per month, he said. ?In order to successfully tackle the problem, the existing stock must be maintained,? he said. ?The Corporation has housed 400 new families since 1999.?

The amount of money people owed BHC in arrears had dropped due to increased payments, he said.

?Most are on a payment plan,? he said. ?One eviction gets attention.?

Sen. Burch boasted that the number of emergency housing shelters had increased from one to five facilities since 1991, increased the number of rooms from four to 82. Sen. Burch said a $49 million Government investment in BHC was not a ?fairy tale?.