BELVEDERE--Four singles or couples will soon move into one of the new one-bedroom starter apartments in the Walter F. Plantz Building, the latest project of St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF).
The attainment of the highest point of the building, located at the entrance to Belvedere, was marked Friday afternoon with a rafter wetting ceremony that saw Parliament Chairperson Sarah Wescot-Williams, Public Housing Minister Angel Meyers and Housing Foundation General Director Helen Salomons climb a ladder from the building's second floor to access its roof. At the top, contractor Boniface Magloire of Nice n Easy Construction N.V. and Housing Foundation Project Manager Telston Bell popped a bottle of champagne to christen the building.
Salomons told The Daily Herald the building will be ready for its first tenants in April when construction is expected to be completed. This project started three months ago and has been rapidly progressing, she said.
The tenants for the building will come from the Housing Foundation’s waiting list of some 1,500 people. However, these apartments, ranging in price from US $375, will not go to people in need of social homes. They will go to young professionals who do not qualify for social homes and who need a leg up to secure first time home ownership.
Salomons said these professionals will be able to save and move rapidly to home ownership. "These are starter or transition homes," she said.
This project as well as others the Housing Foundation has in the pipeline will specifically target what Salomons termed "hidden homelessness." This, she explained, affects young professionals who return home after completing their studies and have no alternative but to live at home with their parents due to restricted income to rent or purchase their own home immediately.
In her speech to the gathering in the Foundation’s Office courtyard, Salomons said the shortage of good quality affordable homes in the country has not escaped the notice of the Housing Foundation. The shortage she tagged to scarcity of land, costly building materials, the need to hurricane-proof buildings and the large segment of "well-off people" – both full-time and part-time (vacation) residents who contribute to keeping housing prices high.
To combat the housing challenges, Salomons said the Foundation will delve more into lease-to-purchase homes and reviving the old-time tradition of jollification by constructing "shells" – the main exterior walls of a home with windows, doors and paint. The rest of these shells will be left up to the homeowner to do at their pace and hopefully with the help of family and neighbours to keep cost down.
Minister Meyers said Government will work together with the Housing Foundation to provide safe and affordable homes for residents. The scarcity of land, he said, calls for creative solutions such as the construction of town-houses to maximize space.
SMHDF Supervisory Board Chairman Elston Fos said the Foundation has many plans for the coming years to cater to the country's housing needs.
