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‘We can’t build houses where there are no utilities’ – NMHC
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Posted on Apr 09 2001
If by some miracle the Northern Islands would suddenly have electric power, safe running water, an efficient sewer system and paved roads in place, then and only then would the Northern Marianas Housing Corporation introduce housing assistance programs in the area.
This seem to be the answer of NMHC Chair Juan S. Tenorio when asked by Rep. William S. Torres on why the Northern Islands continue to be bereft of assistance from the Commonwealth’s housing agency.
“For NMHC to provide housing assistance programs to the people of the Northern Islands is not feasible at this time. The infrastructures are not in place in the Northern Islands to assist people with home ownership,” Mr. Tenorio said in a letter addressed to the lawmaker.
The NMHC chair also argued that the islands have virtually no industry and the area’s employment market would not be able to sustain people with jobs in order to qualify for loans.
“To summarize, the house will not be affordable to Northern Islanders. The under-served funds from the Rural Development is not sufficient alone to successfully implement such a program,” Mr. Tenorio noted.
Housing Executive Director MaryLou S. Ada also revealed that NMHC does not want a repeat of its experience in Kagman III, where the board provided housing assistance to an area where basic infrastructure was generally absent.
She said Kagman III was a mistake from the very beginning because houses there would have to be built on top of land that was without any semblance of the four basic amenities — electricity, water, sewage and roads.
“People had a difficult time specially in the construction of sewers because the land there was 99.9 percent make of rock,” Ms. Ada declared in a phone interview.
The NMHC executive director further noted that as a result of the lack of infrastructure in Kagman III, the agency had to buy a generator and a catch basin to make life in the area more tolerable to the residents.
In turn, beneficiaries of housing assistance in Kagman III had to buy water and other necessities to make up for what the area’s lack of infrastructure has brought to them.
