than on the money markets, the House of Assembly was told.

Through a prior agreement, the Housing Corporation has access to a loan of up to $50 million from J.P. Morgan in America. But Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness said the Corporation did not need all that money.

The funds are available at an interest rate of 4.5 percent, said Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul . Government would have to pay 6.5 percent to borrow elsewhere to finance its capital projects, he added.

The Opposition supported passage of The Bermuda Housing Amendment Act 1993, but criticised Government for arranging to borrow from the Bermuda Housing Corporation on the same day of publication of a newspaper story about the Corporation auctioning off homes of residents who failed to meet payments.

"We find ourselves greedy,'' Shadow Health and Social Services Minister Mr.

Nelson Bascome said. "We seem to have lost the human factor.'' Mr. Edness rejected that charge.

In introducing the Act for second reading, the Minister said the amendment was needed to show Corporation money could be invested "in such manners as the Minister may approve.'' The low-interest money would be particularly useful in development of new educational facilities, he said.

Mr. Bascome said many families were in economic trouble, like the ones facing the forced sale of homes they bought from the Housing Corporation.

"One would have thought today that the Minister could have come up with a solution to also assisting those families,'' he said.

"I'm not knocking your capitalist system,'' but people could not be discarded, or "they may end up harming someone through their frustrations.'' National Liberal Party Leader Mr. Gilbert Darrell warned there was "trouble brewing'' in at least three condominiums formerly owned by the Corporation. It related to the mix of owners and non-owners in the units, he said.

Dr. Saul said that as well as allowing Government to borrow money to assist with its five-year capital plan, the amendment would allow the Corporation to invest surplus funds to increase yields in future.

Shadow Finance Minister Mr. Eugene Cox said many people who borrowed money from Government were finding it extremely hard to meet payments. "If you have sufficient funds that are available that are not being used in some instances, what is wrong with allowing a longer-term amortisation plan for some of these tenants?'' Mr. Cox asked.

Mr. Edness rejected Mr. Bascome's charge that the human element was gone from Government's housing policy.

Housing Corporation general manager Mr. Ed Cowen was quoted in the newspaper story as having made a last-ditch appeal to the residents and saying: "We don't want them to lose their homes,'' Mr. Edness said.

"Does that sound like a ruthless, cold corporation going after people's houses?'' The Island developed a severe housing problem in about 1983 which Government resolved, he said, adding many Bermudians had been able to rent and buy through Government programmes "at very reasonable rates''.

And the extended amortisations Mr. Cox referred to had already been brought in, extending to 20, 25, even 35 years.

An auction would only be resorted to "if someone in that house has belligerently not paid,'' Mr. Edness said. "You have some people, not a lot, who totally disregard their responsibilities.'' Government would be criticised if it did not act when someone had not paid for 18 months or two years. "It's unfair to the people who do pay.'' The Act passed without objections.

THE HON. QUINTON EDNESS -- Many Bermudians can rent or buy through Government programmes `at very reasonable rates'.