Previous Story
Task force formed to address housing needs
|
Posted on May 20 2004
Gov. Juan N. Babauta has formed a task force to address the housing needs in the Commonwealth even as the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. reported more than 300 pending applications for housing loans.
In a letter to all department heads dated May 17, 2004, Babauta said this situation “is unacceptable.”
“To address the housing needs of our community in a more effective and efficient manner, I am hereby creating a housing task force to expediently resolve all pending applications for housing loans,” said the governor.
Appointed to the task force are Mariano Bermudez from the Office of the Governor, Public Works Secretary John S. Reyes, Commonwealth Development Authority executive director Marylou S. Ada, Marianas Public Lands Authority commissioner Henry S. Hofschneider, NMHC officer-in-charge Thomas C. Duenas, and Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Lorraine A. Babauta.
Babauta, in an interview, said the members would have to elect their chair.
He said the task force is required to submit a weekly progress report to the Office of the Governor “until such time that its goals are achieved and the housing needs of our people are met.”
Part of the group’s main job is to work out a deal with developers to finance housing projects in homestead lots, he said.
“We’ll find a way to build more homes that people can own and to make sure that all applications are fast tracked,” he said.
He said the task force will look at all aspects involved in housing development such as land availability, financing, and utilities.
“That’s why we have representatives from various agencies to make sure that all these are taken care for,” he said.
Right now, low- to middle-income families apply for housing loans with NMHC, which has a financing partnership with the Marianas Public Lands Trust.
