Consideration should be given to the idea of bringing a small cruise ship to Bermuda to provide temporary emergency accommodation as the Island grapples with its housing shortage problems, an MP has suggested.

Such measures have been deployed in other parts of the world, most notably in the US following the hurricane devastation wreaked on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina last year.

And small cruise ship accommodation was utilised by the organisers of the 2005 Island Games in Shetland to accommodate visiting sports teams.

Against that background UBP Shadow Works and Engineering Jon Brunson said it was time for Bermuda to take a serious look at the possibility of bringing a small, outdated cruise ship to the Island and mooring it up as a temporary solution to the emergency housing crisis.

It would work on two levels - the first providing a short term solution that would also allow more time for a considered approach to be found to the long term plan of how and where permanent housing can be found.

But the physical sight of a housing ship moored at the Island would also be a constant reminder to political leaders that the problem is real and needs to be addressed.

Mr. Brunson is currently seeking out costings for the idea. He said: "The emergency housing crisis has not gone away. It is as real today as it was a month ago. The Canadian Hotel situation was only a fragment of the problem. It is an issue that needs to be addressed."

The promised emergency shelter for 200 people to be created on North Street was still years away and in the meantime something has to be done, said the MP. "While the Government might be rolling out little pockets of housing they have done nothing on this issue for the past six or seven years. They have not come up with anything other than the trailer homes (prefabs) which are only going to house a limited number of people," he said.

"If we are going to get serious about sorting this out then the issue of utilising a cruise ship to house people on a short-term basis deserves some consideration."

Mr. Brunson has raised the issue already in the House of Assembly but the idea was rejected by Finance Minister Paula Cox as being too expensive using New Orleans as an example.

"But we are not talking about the same ships they used which were for 10,000 people. I'm talking about a ship that could accommodate three or four hundred people, not the mega, mega cruise ships but the much smaller cruise ships that are now a lot less attractive to cruise operators."

Expanding on the idea, he said: "We have limited space in Bermuda and rather than build houses everywhere a temporary cruise ship would buy time to think through a solution rather than rush into an idea and then regret it. This allows time to plan out how to have a sustainable solution.

"Secondly as long as the cruise ship is there it will be a constant reminder that something has to be done and no Government or Party can run away from that commitment because it (the ship) is there as a reminder."

Dockyard would be the most obvious place to moor an emergency housing cruise ship as it has good public transport links to Hamilton through ferries and buses, he said. Mr. Brunson added: "Cruise ships have been used in other locations for temporary housing. I have spoken to the people who did the Shetland Island Games to find out what the cost was of having a cruise ship for accommodation.

"Discounting the idea outright does Bermuda a disservice. We are prepared to spent $50 million overbudget on the new Berkeley Institute and have $49m written off for the BHC ? that's almost $100m of taxpayers money that could have been better spent on something like emergency housing in the form of a cruise ship to house people."