FORMER Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) general manager Ed Cowen has admitted that he was mistaken when he suggested ten years ago that Bermuda Housing Trust (BHT) rents should be raised to market levels.

And he has now challenged Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent to drop the BHC's $38,500 annual management charge to the BHT to show he is serious about helping the Trust's tenants.

Mr. DeVent revealed this week that Mr. Cowen, a former BHT trustee who recently voiced objections to the Trust's huge rent increases this year, had suggested at a board meeting in 1995 that the BHT needed big rent rises.

Mr. Cowen explained that he had just joined the board at that time and did not fully appreciate the way the Trust worked.

"I don't recall saying that rents should be at market levels, but I assume if it's in the minutes, it's correct," Mr. Cowen said yesterday.

"But I do recall a time when (the then chairman) Roddy Ferguson took me aside and lectured me on cash flow as opposed to assets and liabilities. He told me the BHT was generating enough cash flow to be able to save enough to build a new development.

"I said what I said, coming from a background of making money. He (Mr. Ferguson) convinced me it was not about money, it was about people. I changed my way of thinking and went along with the board."

Mr. DeVent revealed in an answer to parliamentary questions from Opposition MP John Barritt this week that the BHC had charged the BHT $38,500 for property management, administration, accounting and secretarial services in 2004.

His written answer also revealed that the BHC had charged the BHT nothing up until 2001. Mr. Cowen felt the Corporation should still charge nothing.

"That $38,500 adds up to $469 per unit, per year, and that is adding to people's rents," Mr. Cowen.

He pointed out that the Bermuda Housing Act made provision for the Corporation to do things other than looking after its own housing stock, like, for example, offering free management services to the BHT.

"Section 14 of the Act also says that the making of profits shall not be the object of the activities of the Corporation," Mr. Cowen said.

"When I was at the BHC, it was no problem to provide management to the Trust. We had all the infrastructure there ? the front desk where people could bring their rent, the accounting services, everything.

"You can't tell me that $38,000 is a fee they should be charging these elderly people."

The BHT has four housing developments comprising 82 units around the island, specifically designed for needy seniors. They are Purvis Park in Devonshire, Heydon Park in Somerset, Elizabeth Hills in Pembroke and Ferguson Park in St. David's. Thirty-seven tenants have appealed to the Rent Commissioner against the increases.