Controversial former Bermuda Housing Corporation general manager Raymonde Dill said social issues of the Bermudian family are affecting the availability of affordable housing on the Island.

Speaking at the Bermuda Industrial Union's educational housing forum on Tuesday night, Mr. Dill, who was forced out of his post in the wake of a scandal over cost overruns at the Corporation, focused on the demand for housing at different levels of the community. He said people in need of housing often brought with them social issues such as substance abuse, inability to budget, and dysfunctionality in the family unit.

A trend among Bermudian families according to Mr. Dill is that they tend to break up early and youngsters want to move out of their parents homes.

"Perhaps they want to do something that mum and dad don't consider to be acceptable under their roof," said Mr. Dill.

His words were met with a mixed reaction from the audience, particularly one young woman who said there were no social issues in her family, and she felt with the prices on the market she could not afford to own her own house as a single parent. A woman in the audience asked Mr. Dill: "I want to own my own house, I don't have any social issues or social dysfunction in my family. I have a good job but I can't afford my own home. There are no breaks on mortgages and I have to pay all of my bills. I need to know what the solution is for people like me."

Mr. Dill suggested she look at what her options would be from a lending organisation.

Mr. Dill said segments of the population had different needs.

According to interviews he said he conducted while at the BHC, Mr. Dill said the majority of people looking for affordable homes, are Bermudian families who are single parents at a low or middle- income level, who are typically black and on financial assistance. He also spoke about the homeless members of the community who he said had chosen to opt out of society and live without a roof over their head.

Mr. Dill said to his knowledge 95 percent of the families on the emergency waiting list were black Bermudians, a small portion were Portuguese, and a few were white.

As he spoke about the social issues affecting the housing crisis, Mr. Dill said Portuguese families often put three to four families in one house, a style of living that may seem overcrowded to the average Bermudian. International guest workers were also seen as more desirable tenants among Bermudian landlords, an issue Mr. Dill said must be addressed otherwise the pie would be cut even smaller for Bermudians seeking accommodation.

"If we don't deal with these attitudes in relation to these people then eventually guest workers will have all of the rented properties."

He said greed was an issue which drove the prices up, and construction prices and land cost also affected the crisis.