GOVERNMENT has "effectively nationalised" the Bermuda Housing Trust (BHT) and its elderly tenants are paying the price.

That is the view of former BHT trustee and the former Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) general manager Ed Cowen, who said rent increases being asked by the Trust were far in excess of what should be necessary for maintenance of the properties.

Mr. Cowen said the replacement of the board of trustees in 1999, after the Progressive Labour Party had come into power, sparked the chain of events that had seen seniors' rents more than double in some cases, as the Trust veered away from its founding principles.

"The Government took the Trust out of the hands of capable people with relevant skills who were interested in keeping costs down for the good of tenants," Mr. Cowen said.

"And they appointed people who supported their party. They have effectively nationalised the BHT by taking the property from the Trust and using it as a part of the Housing Corporation.

"If you value the Trust properties at $300,000 each, then there is $25 million in total there. That's a big pile of money to nationalise.

"As long as the Trust stays with the BHC, things will not improve. Only when Government recognises that the Trust should be updated as a charitable organisation will people want to donate to the Trust again."

BHT chairman Ronald Simmons has said the rent rises were necessary as maintenance costs alone amounted to $305 per unit, per month. That amounts to around $300,000 per year for the Trust's 82 units.

"There's no way you can tell me that it costs more than $300,000 to maintain those properties," Mr. Cowen said.

"Even if you paid two guys $30 an hour, five days a week, 50 weeks a year to do nothing but look after Trust properties, that would only come to $120,000 a year in labour costs.

"I don't know why their maintenance figure is so high. I am horrified by it. It shocks me to think they are paying out $300 a month for each unit. Something is clearly seriously wrong with the maintenance schedules and the way contracts are being awarded.

"And with the new rents, they will be collecting something in the order of $700,000. So the question is: Where's the money going?"

We heard two complaints of poor maintenance from the four tenants we spoke to last week. One, who lives in Heydon Park, Somerset, particularly criticised work done by painter Paul Young.

Mr. Young, who is understood to have left the island, hit the headlines three years ago as "The Man With The Golden Paintbrush", when this newspaper revealed the BHC had paid him more than $810,000 in the space of seven months. Mr. Young is still being sought by Bermuda Police Service in connection with its inquiry into BHC finances.

The resident, who asked not to be named, said: "They came up here with a gang of kids who did not know what they were doing. They were using wide brushes around the windows and making a mess.

"I told (former BHC general manager) Raymonde Dill about it. They did not even complete what they were doing."

During his time in charge of the Corporation, Mr. Cowen said the relationship with the Trust had amounted to the BHC doing the Trust's accounts and using its contractors to carry out BHT maintenance for a fee. Now, he said, the separation between the organisations had become blurred.

"The Trust was set up as an organisation to provide low-cost housing for seniors on a fixed income and to raise funds from the private sector," Mr. Cowen said.

"The Corporation is a quango that helps people who fall through the cracks. They are two entirely separate entities and Trust properties should not be used by the BHC to put its people in.

"People used to donate generously to the Trust when the late Roderick Ferguson was chairman. He would go up to the Pembroke Paint Company and get them to give him 100 gallons of paint.

"He would bump into people on the street and button-hole them. I don't think the current board are doing anything like that.

"If people are sitting behind a desk and getting a quote from a painter who is supplying materials and all, then of course it's going to cost more than if they get out there and urge people and businesses to donate what they can.

"The BHT was set up as an organisation that could go out and raise funds. But nobody is going to give to the Trust if it's seen to be Government-run."

BHT chairman Mr. Simmons did not answer our call by press time yesterday.