The Bermuda Housing Trust’s financials through March 31, 2023, have been given “another clean and unqualified audit”.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the public works minister, told the House of Assembly that the trust’s latest books have been approved by Heather Thomas, the Auditor-General.

Ms Thomas reported that the financials “fairly” presented the state of the trust for the island’s financially challenged seniors, created in 1965.

The BHT is to take on “two major projects” in 2024-25, MPs heard, to the tune of more than $250,000.

Colonel Burch highlighted the ten-year $12.5 million construction loan in 2006 to build 100 seniors homes at Dr Cann Park in Southampton.

He said the loan was now paid down to HSBC to “just under $3 million”.

The complex of one-bedroom units, named after the late MP and doctor Eustace Cann, opened in 2009.

Colonel Burch said none of its rents exceeded $1,000 a month.

He told the House of Assembly that the island’s demographic trends would pile more demand on the BHT, which maintains “a constant waiting list of 100 applicants for homes”.

Colonel Burch added that the trust faced maintenance bills, and now had a permanent staff of two to meet the needs of clients.

The BHT moved into a new central office at the Washington Mall in Hamilton on May 1, 2023, for three years at an annual rent of $15,690.