Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
THE STATE-OWNED National Housing Trust (NHT) has abandoned efforts to collect outstanding mortgage payments from dozens of residents in three housing developments in three garrison communities.
Occupants of units in Denham Town/Hannah Town in Edward Seaga's Western Kingston constituency, Trench Town in Dr. Omar Davies' South St. Andrew constituency and Tawes Pen in Olivia 'Babsy' Grange's Central St. Catherine constituency owe the NHT close to $50 million as at May 16, 2002.
NHT officials say they have had to abandon their efforts to bring the tenancy of many residents in those schemes up-to-date because instead of paying their monthly mortgages, threats have been issued against the lives of collectors. In addition, managing director, Earl Samuels, said the agency is not certain about who occupy many of the units, hence its inability to place a figure on the precise numbers who are not paying their monthly bill.
"As things stand right now, it is not worth the risk," declared Mr. Samuels.
However, the Trust emphasised that some occupants of the three schemes are meeting their monthly obligations.
Denham Town/Hannah Town has the highest level of indebtedness, with some $33 million outstanding. The 166-unit Trench Town scheme has a debt of $8.6 million. The loan balance is $10 million. Twenty-two mortgagors in the Tawes Pen Scheme owe just over $1 million. The loan balance on this scheme is one and a half million dollars.
Sources tell The Sunday Gleaner that the NHT has initiated meetings with the sitting MPs seeking their assistance in recovering the outstanding sums. The status of those talks is unclear and it is not known if the parties have arrived at a possible solution. Dr. Davies, the MP for South St. Andrew, who is also the Minister of Finance and Planning, was not available for comment when his office was contacted last week; Miss Grange, MP for Central St. Catherine, reached by cell phone on Friday, said that she was working on commercials and since the telephone connection was poor, she would return the call on a regular line. She did not. Edward Seaga, MP for Western Kingston and Leader of the Opposition, has offered collection suggestions to the NHT, according to sources.
The Trench Town Scheme in South St. Andrew was built between 1972 and 1976 during the tenure of then People's National Party (PNP) Housing Minister, Anthony Spaulding. This was after the Government adopted a national low-cost housing strategy, with a target of building not less than 3,000 dwellings per year. This strategy was recommended by the London-based Shankland, Cox Overseas Planners and Architects in a 1969-commissioned report. The scheme was built by the Ministry of Housing, but the NHT sold the units to the public.
The Tawes Pen Scheme in Central St. Catherine was built by the Ministry of Housing in 1975 at a cost of $1.2 million amidst controversy surrounding the eviction of squatters from Government-owned lands in the parish. On April 5, 1975, The Gleaner reported that a heavy-duty vehicle, contracted to the Government, and under the watchful eyes of heavily-armed policemen, cleared a large area of the land and mowed down fences surrounding the houses. The squatters were served with quit notices months before the eviction.
Although JLP caretaker at the time, Abe Dabdoub, labelled the notices "blatant attempt at victimisation of JLP supporters", the Ministry of Housing moved ahead with the demolition and built the scheme. Many of the former squatters were later offered tenancy in the new development.
"What the Trust has done (in 2000) is to make a loss provision amounting to approximately $42 million in respect of the schemes (mentioned above). This action is in line with standard accounting practices to make a provision for questionable debts," explained the NHT in written responses to questions faxed to its offices by The Sunday Gleaner.
The NHT managing director, in explaining the decision to set aside efforts to collect on the investments in the three schemes, told The Sunday Gleaner in a subsequent interview that the schemes were placed under the three per cent provision for bad debt as the Trust had technically given up efforts to collect.
"We came to terms with the reality that we would not be able to collect mortgages from the majority of the occupants... however a few are still paying," Mr. Samuels emphasised.
He said those who pay do so through salary deductions, but said it was his understanding that many of those now paying do not live in the schemes. "I cannot say exactly why, this may be due to choice," said the NHT boss.
In the case of the Denham Town/Hannah Town scheme, the NHT was forewarned 13 years ago about the problems it could face, if it proceeded with the purchase of those units. One such problem identified by a 1989 audit was that the units were occupied before the NHT bought them and the occupants could not afford to pay for them.
Consultant on the Denham Town/Hannah Town project during the 1980s, Garth Lampart, told The Sunday Gleaner that the Ministry of Housing, headed by Bruce Golding, in 1989, determined who received houses in this scheme.
He said that "beneficiaries were determined by social workers from the Ministry of Housing, who were part of the project along with a number of other professionals."
Mr. Lampart emphasised that beneficiaries were selected by the Housing Ministry and that they knew who they were from early and had no need to capture them.
However, Mr. Golding said that the Ministry he led then had nothing to do with the project as it was an NHT project which came under the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance.
But the current NHT boss said that the Trust had no control over the selection process.
Quantity surveyor Maurice Stoppi, who also worked on the Denham Town/Hannah Town housing scheme, said that he understood the project to be under the Ministry of Housing, but with input from a number of different agencies, including the NHT and Office of the Prime Minister.
