Just when you think things are going right with housing, something comes along to demonstrate that this Government just can?t get it right.

Take the Bermuda Homes for People project. Announced with great fanfare, it looked like the perfect solution. New construction methods would contain building costs that have gone into the stratosphere. Tax breaks and cheap Government-owned land would further reduce the expense. The sales of the upper market homes would subsidise the sale of homes to qualified lower income buyers.

Then it all started to go wrong. The privately-run BHP was declared technically insolvent. Government said the Bermuda Land Development Company would take over the project. So far, it has shown no interest in doing so. Then Premier Alex Scott and Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent said new sources of financing from Bermuda-based insurance companies had been found. Nothing has been heard about that since.

Undeterred, a fancy lottery was held this summer, almost, but not quite, with marching bands. On Saturday, the winners of the lottery said they had heard nothing since and disenchantment is setting in.

BHP is due to have a board meeting this week and there may be an announcement after that. From Government, there?s been total silence.

Earlier this year, Mr. DeVent announced that the Bermuda Housing Corporation would by buying prefabricated emergency homes to alleviate the rental crisis.

The first of the homes have now arrived. There?s only one problem. The BHC has not figured out where to put them. Mr. DeVent has said one plan, to scatter them around the Island, fell victim to the ?not in my backyard (Nimby)? syndrome.

Now the BHC is trying to find open land where they can all be built. The trouble is that most of the remaining open land in Bermuda isn?t zoned for building, requiring the Environment Minister to waive the zoning. It would appear that Ms Butterfield isn?t too happy about making that change, and with good reason. It?s not a decision that should be taken lightly.

But wouldn?t it have made more sense to locate the land first and then to buy the buildings?

Other BHC plans have also stalled. A proposal for a large development on Perimeter Lane in Pembroke came unstuck when the Development Applications Board rejected it.

One would like to think that the newly returned David Burch would be able to sort these problems out. But he is not God, and it?s time to admit that there is still something seriously wrong with the BHC.