UDP REPORT CARD INCREASES 2 POINTS TO 37%

GOVERNMENT TO WRITE OFF $62 1/2 MILLION IN HOUSING LOANS FOR POOR PEOPLE.

This is worth 2 points on the UDP report card. Score now 37%

"In the effort to build Belize and to better Belize, Government conceives of land and housing as two of the most important cornerstones. We are working with Mexico on funding for a new low-cost housing construction programme that will be similar to the one we did with Venezuela, and which will be countrywide. In the meantime we are spending almost 5 million dollars this year on home repairs and for home improvement all across the nation. This is on top of the OPEC 4.2 million for Southside Belize. Of course, everything that we do in housing is free. We provide grants, not loans. This is because poor people-with the best will in the world-cannot repay loans except at an intolerable cost to themselves. We are witness to this even now as there are more than 9,200 loans currently on the books at the Ministry of Housing. The weight of these is taxing the loan recipients to perdition; but no more. Government has decided that it will write off each and every single one of
those loans at a total cost of around 62.6 million dollars. I will therefore be going to the National Assembly shortly for the formalization of this process. And it will be the consummation of massive relief for all those struggling with government mortgages that they simply cannot pay."