Wedco walked away from an affordable housing plan for tenants at Victoria and Albert Row, according to documents shared with this newspaper.One Bermuda Alliance candidate Ray Charlton contends the current plan to build prefabricated units instead, is “just an aside” to go with the proposed new Dockyard marina.Mr Charlton who is running in Sandys North, where the new housing project is due to be built, released documents to The Royal Gazette that showed that charity Habitat for Humanity Bermuda had secured funding to renovate the West End units.He said he did so because “people are generally unaware of the plan that was founded on consultation, transparency and fairness”.Wedco entered into a memorandum of understanding with Habitat for Humanity in 2006 to purchase and renovate 16 units at Albert Row and establish a sales programme for 52 units at Boaz Island Village.The proposal had an estimated cost of $87,000, with each unit to be sold for not more than $300,000.Wedco’s new agreement will see 100 units built at a cost of $36 million, offered for rent from $1,600 to $2,100 per month.Mr Charlton said Habitat’s objective was to make the renovated units available to current tenants.“My understanding was that this initiative fell through because Habitat required assurances from Wedco that the current residents who are either unable or unwilling to purchase their current home would be provided with alternative accommodation at an equivalent rent. This I have been made to understand was the deal breaker,” he said.The project was confirmed by Habitat for Humanity Bermuda founding member Sheelagh Cooper.“We spent in excess of a year in negotiations with Wedco because we were offering to fix up those units to benefit the residents because we realised that they were in terrible need of repair,” she said.“We wanted assurances from Wedco that the tenants who did not want to buy the renovated units would be placed in other Wedco properties with the same rent. I believe no assurances from Wedco was the deal breaker. I believe the conditions were responsible for Wedco walking away from the table, so we abandoned the project.“We were frustrated because we had the funding available; we had worked out the economics of how it could work, it took a lot of time and effort.“But the crux of the matter is that in 2006 our estimates were significantly less than what they’re proposing now and it’s a shame that the project didn’t go through.“Now there’s a glut of housing on the market and I’m a little surprised at the magnitude of the plans going forward to expand the number of units because our information indicates there’s more than enough available properties on the market, but the question is affordability.“We are still actively involved in renovations at the moment we have three projects on the go and we will be looking for others. But at Albert Row our main concern was that the tenants there would be displaced.”Wedco general manager Andrew Dias said: “The Habitat for Humanity proposal was a totally different project for renovations, with the option to buy. The current project is for rental units.”Renovations would have cost much more than building new units at today’s prices, he said. And he denied that the project was just “an aside” to the development plans for a marina.Asked if he’d consulted with tenants, Mr Dias said: “If by consultation you mean did we make individual plans for 80 people then the answer is no.“We had meetings, sent out notifications and asked the tenants to come in if they had any objections. Only one person came in and they don’t even live in the units in question.”He continued: “Mr Charlton should do his homework, he has spoken to the tenants but he has yet to come to the source.“He just started at this three months ago, we’ve been at it for three years. My role as a general manager is not political, my role is to manage.“Three years ago we told tenants that we would not be upgrading the units, there would be no ongoing maintenance to improve them and that we would only address safety issues only because we were going to do this project.”