GOVERNMENT'S treatment of squatters illegally occupying an abandoned hotel is proof that it has lost touch with both the people and its own core values, according to Opposition Senator Gina Spence Farmer.Government this week was finally forced to help the squatters after Sen. Spence Farmer exposed the former Club Med resort in St. George's as a death trap.

The Senator, speaking in last week's Mid-Ocean News, said the occupation was a tragedy waiting to happen and questioned why Government had done nothing to relocate the inhabitants, even though it had been aware of the problem for years.

Housing Minister David Burch later said Sen. Spence Farmer should have been arrested for helping the illegal occupation, and described the squatters as "monsters".

But on Tuesday he confirmed Government was now considering a proposal to relocate the squatters — but only if they have registered with the Bermuda Housing Corporation first.

"Those are the only people I'm interested in addressing because those are the only people I know exist," he said.

Yesterday, Sen. Spence Farmer welcomed the latest move — but questioned why Government wasn't doing more to ensure all squatters were signed up with the BHC so that they could all qualify for assistance.

And she vowed that she will do everything possible to help residents register so that they can all be relocated.

"If Government is saying that these people need to be registered before they will help them, then I will do what I did when the Canadian Hotel shut down — I will go to the Bermuda Housing Corporation, get the applications, and work with the residents to help them register," she said.

"What Government doesn't seem to understand is that some of the residents can't even read and write, some of them have challenges. But why hasn't Government been more proactive about the outreach?

"What they've been saying is, 'We know you're down there, we know what some of the challenges are, we know you don't have anywhere to go, but if you don't fill out this form we're going to put you on the street' — that just doesn't make sense.

"It goes against everything that they tout themselves as — why aren't they down there helping the people? Why should it take a front-page newspaper headline to get them to act?

"Some of the residents have been there for ten years. You don't hear anything about compassion. Government should get some of its people down there with pens and papers and the forms.

"This would in fact be a great way for Government to get some data. There's no data on the homeless at the moment. Wouldn't it be great to go down there and meet these people, gather information on what's really happening? That way a plan can be put together based on facts.

"But no, instead these people are ridiculed and called monsters. By evicting them that's exactly how Government is treating them — either cage them up or cut them loose. That to me is a very sad indictment on a so-called labour government, a so-called progressive Government."

Sen. Spence Farmer said that former Progressive Labour Party leaders would not have allowed the situation at Club Med to develop — and that the current administration had broken with the PLP's core values.

"People like Freddie Wade lived and died for these people," she said.

"If you read his speeches, he held the UBP to the nth degree over the fact that people were not being housed — yet we have the same situation now.

"I believe the vision that Freddie Wade had for people like those at Club Med, he took to his grave. The current Government hasn't carried on that vision, they've lost sight of the very things that their founding fathers fought and died for."

Minister Burch has so far failed to reveal where the Club Med residents will be housed, or when the relocation will take place.

Sen. Spence Farmer said yesterday: "I haven't been able to find out from the Minister — he hasn't given me any more information.

"But I'm hoping to go down this afternoon to talk with the residents — I'm trying to find out from them where they're at.

"But I do think that there's going to be a process. Based on what happened at the Canadian Hotel, I imagine there will be one.

"I know there has been some talk about housing them at the barracks and also at Dockyard. But wouldn't it be great if Government was able to say, 'We have these affordable houses built and we know exactly where we're going to put these people'?

"They can't say that, they can only talk about condominiums. And even the housing plans that they do have lined up are not affordable for a lot of people.

"Every country has some people that fall into that category and there are programmes that are working very well. It's a sad day for Bermuda because we have the money and the resources to do things, when a lot of countries don't.

"The question is, why aren't those resources being utilised to help those in need most?"