M.I.D.H.’s Publicity Manager Says The Houses Will Be Built

Marisa Alamilla

One of the faults that Usher pointed to is that the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing is not building the homes at a fast enough pace to fulfill the pre-election promise that the P.U.P. made. Alamilla said there are reasons for that, but that they are building homes.

Marisa Alamilla, Public Relations, Publicity Mgr., M.I.D.H.

“I don’t know that we promised it at a rate. We promised that we were going to build new homes for thousands of Belizeans. There is an issue when it comes to budget. Everything costs, Marion. These houses – before we got in, there was one price and now there’s another price, based on the cost of living going up. Everybody hears about it every day and it’s the reality. So we have to be cognizant of the fact that we can – we have the houses to build, they will be built but we have also different aspects of this program. There has to be transparency and accountability. It’s the people’s money, so we have to account for what we’re doing. We can’t just – because Minister Usher wants fifty houses, we goh build fifty houses. We have to make sure that these people qualify. I am not saying we’re not going to build thousands of homes in the time frame. I’m not saying that. I am saying to you that we are moving at a pace that we can, considering everything. Who thought about Hurricane Lisa, no one. When Hurricane Lisa came, that slowed us down. Now we have to re-direct. Housing actually led the charge for Hurricane Lisa. MIDH had to go in and do a lot of the clean-up, a lot of the repairs. It’s not like MIDH is not working.”