Grenada Today - The National Newspaper of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique

The Housing Authority of Grenada (HAG) says it is looking at ways to make it easier for more Grenadians to qualify under its $40,000.00 Soft Loan Scheme being offered to persons whose homes were affected during the passage of hurricane Ivan last September.

This was disclosed by Chairman of the Emergency Housing Committee (EHC) of the authority, Simeon Collins during a press conference hosted by the Ministry of Housing on Tuesday at the Ministerial Complex building in the Botanical Gardens.

Collins was responding to a question posed by this newspaper in relations to complaints from persons about not being able to access the Soft Loan promoted by the HAG due to the rigorous conditions attached to it.

A single mother in St. Andrew's complained to GRENADA TODAY that she had to submit her photographs, copies of her utility bills as well as her salary slip but was still turned down because of insufficient collateral.

In speaking on the issue, Collins said the housing authority is reviewing its security agreement on the application form so that more persons can benefit under the scheme.

He pointed out that one of the new conditions will be that once a person is earning a salary and can provide the loans office with a letter from his/her employer then that individual will qualify for a loan.

According to Collins, applicants for loans need to realise that the monies have to be repaid since the funds are given to government as a loan from an international institution which he did not identify Collins said he believe that HAG's Soft Loan Scheme is one that the population can benefit from since its interest rate is fixed at 3% with a repayment period of 10 years.

He added that the application forms being used to access the loans are the same ones seen at some of the local commercial banks and other lending institutions operating in the country like Credit Unions.

Housing Minister Yolande Bain-Joseph who also spoke on the issue said that loans officers attached to the scheme would not turn down people deliberately. She noted, however, that filling out forms and being asked for certain requirements such as a photograph are routine procedures one will have to abide with in order to seek loans.

Minister Joseph indicated that the same conditions apply if persons are crediting items from an appliance store on the island and used the occasion to appeal to persons not to get offended by the requirements. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Housing, Veda Bruno-Victor stated that no one on the island will be left behind under the House Repair Programme.

She believes that the $40,000.00 scheme is the ideal opportunity for Public Servants to get a loan to do repairs on their homes or start rebuilding their homes that were damaged during the hurricane. Housing officials have said that they received 2000 applications for financial assistance under the scheme and are presently reviewing them. HAG is hopeful that it will start disbursing the funds this month.