Tenants facing eviction from Government flats in St. George?s which will be sold to middle class homebuyers have voiced their anger about the move.

Government want to sell 16 two-bedroom, two bathroom units in Anchorage Road for more than $600,000 and use the cash for other housing products.

One tenant said she had been moved around the apartments several times as they were refurbished. The 63-year-old said her current apartment had been re-tiled and new cabinets and plumbing installed three years ago in February. However Bermuda Housing Corporation general manager Vance Campbell said only one apartment had been refurbished and it saved some of the work set to be done. One single mother of two said she feared she would not able to pay rent if she was forced to move. She only learned about the plan two weeks ago.

She said: ?I am in a one-bed and pay $1,000 a month. For a two-bed I will be paying $1,400 to $1,600. I haven?t budgeted for moving.?

However Mr. Campbell said BHC two bed homes went for a maximum of $1,400 but it was possible to find places for less.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, also feared she would have to leave the parish she?s lived in for the past decade.

Senator Kim Swan said: ?I know all the residents of that area and many of them have lived in that area for generations.

He said some of them had been re-housed in St. George?s and he hoped the others could be re-housed locally.

?It?s a very sentimental area.? He said some were very attached to the idea of coming from North Shore in St. George?s.

?It?s very disheartening right before Christmas.

?Some of those buildings were recently renovated and refurbished and people were settling in.?

But Mr. Campbell said BHC owned or managed a number of properties in St. George?s and would try to keep people within the parish. ?We are aware people?s lives revolve around the parish, you live there and work there and have baby sitters there.?

Work is not due to start until mid-2004 giving the Corporation time to re-house the 30-odd tenants. Sen. Swan said he would campaign on behalf of the residents and said they had been given a fait accompli.

He said Census information had shown almost a third of the population was poor or near poor and he was surprised a labour government had so little regard for people at the bottom end of the economic totem poll.