Lack of land rather than funds led to the demise of the Bermuda Homes for People, former project manager John Gaston said yesterday.

Mr. Gaston laid blame for the collapse at the feet of the Bermuda Land Development Company (BLDC) which he said refused to hand over 18 acres of harbour-front property in St. David?s.

Mr. Gaston held nothing back as he spoke out about the project while preparing to leave the Island this week as a result of his frustration.

?The BLDC really fought this every step of the way,? Mr. Gaston said. ?We had wonderful support from the community. ACE had promised $5 million. XL, Partner and Ren Re were all willing to go in. Usually the hard part is not the land, usually the hard part is finding the industry and financing.?

The collapse of the project ? which called for the construction of 98 homes to be sold for market prices and 98 identical homes to be sold for $199,000 to lottery winners ? was announced last Thursday. Mr. Gaston said it will certainly hurt the community.

All 35 of the people who placed deposits for the 98 market price homes were first time home buyers, he noted.

And for the 98 lottery winners, the project offered what might be their only chance of owning their own homes.

Despite the obvious need for affordable housing, Mr. Gaston said the BLDC played hardball with BHP, refusing to hand over the leases for the site and calling leases drawn up by BHP ?too American?.

Mr. Gaston said his dealings with BLDC got off on the wrong foot from day one.

BLDC chairman Geoffrey Elliott proved difficult from their first meeting, he claimed.

??Who are you? We?re not interested. Get out of here?,? were his first words of greeting, according to Mr. Gaston.

?He was extremely discourteous,? he said.

?So, the strategy we used was to get Government support because the Government ultimately owns the BLDC. We were able to achieve that at a pretty high level.

?We got the Premier interested in it.? It was decided Government would take the land from BLDC.

To do so, however, under the law which oversaw the quango?s founding, Government would have to offer BLDC monetary compensation.

?The Government could not find an instrument to do that,? Mr. Gastonp said. ?It was a lot of money if you were going to compensate for 18 acres. Which they did not want to do. We came up with the idea of leasing it back from them, but Elliott fought it.?

Mr. Gaston claimed BLDC had more lucrative ideas and expectations for the site.

?What the BLDC wanted to do on that property was build big, multi-million dollar condos because it was waterfront property and they were going to clear $9 million,? he said. ?My pitch was that this land is owned by Bermudians, it should be for Bermudians.?

But relations continued to sour rather than improve.

?Finally, DeVent issued a directive to the BLDC ? he has issued a number of them that have never been listened to or acted on ? that they were going to take the land and it was going to be leased back,? Mr. Gaston.

?Then the problem with the tenants came up and they were directed to notify the tenants that the tenants had to be moved. They did nothing. We took it upon ourselves to get the tenants organised and find new locations.

?It was an unbelievable nightmare. The land caused the big trouble and the Government could not figure a way out of that box.?

Mr. Gaston said affordable housing in Bermuda is a serious problem which will be around for a long time.

He believes the plan to build the homes will probably still go ahead, however, the homes will be away from the waterside so that BLDC can build their condos and the lottery winners will have a view of a runway.

He also predicted BLDC would reconfigure the plan to include 75 percent market value homes and 25 percent $199,000 homes.

?It?s horrendous that the PLP, who represent the people, could allow that to happen,? he said. ?Between the Government not moving and the BLDC preventing it it became overwhelming.?

He said Government had no control of the housing quangos.

?They are trying to get control now with the appointment of Burch,? he said.

?All you have to do is count how many directives have come from DeVent who was a huge supporter of the project. But he does not have enough strength in the party and the party doesn?t have enough strength from a solidarity point of view to make things happen.

?They have to learn how to make things happen. They just have to get something done.?

He still believes affordable housing projects are possible under this Government but changes will have to be made, he said.

?They have to get over this racism issue,? Mr. Gaston said.

?They have to get over the fact there are not many people on the Island who know how to do it, who actually know how to implement it, and they have to hire people who do know how to do it.

?They have to stop thinking they can do it on their own. That?s a very dangerous problem. It?s one thing not to know but thinking you can ? and you can?t ? is a terrible problem.?

One of BHP?s principles was to train Bermudians to be project managers for projects of this magnitude, to carry on in the future, he added.

?It would be nice if BLDC had some sense of community, but they don?t,? he said. ?We were non-profit. Not a dollar was in this for anybody.?

Repeated calls to BLDC chairman Mr. Elliott for comment yesterday went unreturned.