Up to March of this year, the Government Corporation had foreclosed on 30 of the 897 accounts that were in arrears.
A total of 2,722 mortgages are held by the Mortgage Corporation, he said.
During his contribution to the budget debate, Mr Gibson angrily refuted remarks attributed to Lucaya Member of Parliament Neko Grant in The Freeport News that the Corporation was evicting large numbers of persons from their homes.
“How could you say these persons are being placed out of these homes in large numbers? That is absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
“Nothing could be so off from the truth…I want the member of Lucaya to come and correct that bogus information he released to The Freeport News,” Mr Gibson demanded.
“We’re only a phone call away. If you want information, call us,” he said.
According to the statistical breakdown released in the House of Assembly by Mr Gibson, there were: 24 foreclosures in December 2004; five foreclosures in December 2003; two in December 2002; two in December 2001 and two in December 2000.
Emphasising that the accounts had been in arrears for between eight and 10 years, Mr Gibson noted, “We don’t foreclose on people whose accounts are in arrears for six months and a year.”
However it was noted that the number of mortgages in arrears for the past five years have remained in the hundreds at the Corporation. There were 849 accounts in arrears in December 2000; 903 in December 2001; 933 in December 2002; 960 in December 2003; 948 in December 2004 and 897 in March 2005.
During the past six years, 16 persons had to vacate their houses because of court orders, according to Minister Gibson.
There were two evictions in 2000; two in 2001; two in 2002; five in 2003; four in 2004 and one in March, 2005.
“Those figures certainly do not support a sensible claim that the government is putting people out of their homes in a wholesale and insensitive way as some would have us believe,” said Minister Gibson.
He said he could not understand how anyone could accuse the Progressive Liberal Party government of putting people out of their homes after the administration had built more homes in the first three years in office than the Free National Movement government built in its entire nine years in office.
He told parliamentarians that over the next 18 months, the government intends to spend an additional $108 million to build 1,200 more homes throughout The Bahamas.
By: HADASSAH HALL, The Nassau Guardian
