Calabash Boom Affordable Housing Is Dysfunctional

Letter to the Editor:

For many months we have been reading about various issues that have come up concerning the approval of this housing project. The most recent event is the cancellation of the reverse-osmosis water system, so now the future residents will be dependent on delivered water.

Reliance has shown us that they are very capable of developing a first class product and we should do all we can to work with them to develop affordable housing in the Virgin Islands.

BUT, developing housing that is a four-hour ride to high school, a six-hour trip to a department store, many miles out on a road with only one access for emergency vehicles, is not good planning.

Affordable housing needs more than subsidized rent to be affordable. It should be located near community facilities so kids can get to school, people can shop, and can get to work conveniently and safely. This location will put many families into a situation that will require them to have two and three cars, that is not good planning.

Various boards and agencies have bent the rules to the breaking point to approve this project. This project should be stopped not because the approval process was faulty, which it was, it should be stopped because it is dysfunctional.

Just because the government owns the property does not make it a good location for affordable housing. Can this project be abandoned and a site located nearer to Cruz Bay be found now, before it is too late?

Greg Miller