Housing Minister Sen. David Burch this week told the Progressive Labour Party's (PLP) delegates' conference that a significant reduction in the numbers of people in need of emergency housing will shortly be made when new housing stock comes on stream.

And he repeated a vow to take legal action to recover taxpayers' money which had been squandered in dodgy building contracts.

He said that there were 167 people on the emergency list and the Bermuda Housing Corporation had been asked to break down the list into categories such as "critical, urgent and emergency" in order to better identify needs.

Currently people on the list include people living in cars, caves and living rooms in relatives' homes, he said.

Breaking down the list would allow the Corporation to "identify those people who are living in cars because obviously their need is far greater than the person who is living in my living room", he said.

He revealed that the Warwick condominium complex known as Perryville will have its name changed because it reflected the previous owners. "We are selling the units. We are selling them as affordable housing. They are below market price. We went through a lengthy selection process to graduate people off our mortgage list as well as our rental list. Those people that had a track record with the Housing Corporation in terms of saving and paying their bills and so we looked at all of those to see whether their income could support a mortgage on those properties so that we could provide ownership to first time home buyers."

Some of the first-time homeowners are on the BHC mortgage list and had been saving with the Housing Corporation to buy a house. And some 12 properties will be freed up to be used for housing people on the emergency list, he continued.

"In addition to that, I understand that at Southside the 12 units that make up the 17 that were originally going to be built there - those people have been selected and are moving in.

"So we are making small step progress," he said. "Not the type of progress that I would like to see, but ... very shortly we should have a significant addition to our emergency housing stock that will address a significant portion of that 167. We have not crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is ... but at the same time we are looking long term in terms of building other units on a long-term basis to help the people that are on a general mortgage list and rental list that are not emergencies."

Turning to concerns about overpayments and allegations about dodgy contracts at the Corporation, Senator Burch repeated commitments made earlier that Government was prepared to take legal action.

"I indicated to the Country two weeks ago ... that we had identified problems that had not yet made it into the media. They are substantial and we are going to address how we can get some redress," he said.

The Perryville project, which was extensively reported on in Friday's Mid Ocean News, was not the only case in which problems had been identified, he said. "I accept it, I admit it. We know it. And that's not the only case, There are others. And we are looking at how we got to this position and we are also looking at how we can get our money back.

"I can tell you that that is not an idle promise or suggestion. I came from a meeting with our lawyers to this meeting where we looked at four cases to get their advice about how we can sue through the civil courts and get our money back.

"This is serious, because as far as I am concerned, the money that has been wasted belongs to all the people in this room and all the other people in this Country who pay taxes.

"I make that clear to the staff that we are talking about our money not some phantom person somewhere. And therefore we are going to pursue getting it back. Now,are we? I don't know. But you can rest assured that we will get at least a pound of flesh. But what it is also going to do is send a clear message to both contractors of the Housing Corporation and suppliers that we are not wasting money anymore."

The Mid Ocean News reported that the Perryville contractors had been paid twice the going rate for building the 12 new condos.

He added that the issue of delinquent tenants was being resolved with more people coming in to settle their affairs in the last two weeks. "There is a significant increase in people now understanding that they have a responsibility in this, we're prepared to help them but they must work with us. And there's no handouts around here."

Sen. Burch also reported that the BHC had 305 mortgages in its portfolio valued at $18 million and owns more than 100 properties valued at $65 million. Some 500 households were living in BHC-owned rental units with another 100 in private sector owned units.