Housing conference to aim at
attracting sustainable funding
BELVEDERE--Housing foundations of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba will gather in St. Maarten next month to mark the tenth anniversary of their collective and to lobby for more sustainable funding from the Dutch to cater to the growing need for social housing for their populations.
The main focus of the conference will be how to set up the required structures to attract and keep a steady flow of finances necessary to improve the housing situation on the islands.
Each island has to deal with its own unique problems and structure, but they all have financing difficulties, St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation Director Michael Fowler told The Daily Herald in an interview about the upcoming conference.
Fowler said that instead of just receiving loans from the Dutch or European Union (EU), the best formula was partnerships with housing corporations in Europe. Such partnerships or joint ventures have advantages for both parties whereby the local entity will share in the profits and improve its liquidity position and the overseas partner(s) earn sizable returns on their investments, he explained.
Conference delegates will meet on May 22 and tour the various housing clusters overseen by the local housing foundation to get a picture of the St. Maarten housing situation.
An inventory of the housing situation on all islands is being compiled in a book that is in the final stage of editing. The book, in Dutch, will be presented at the conference and will be used as a lobbying tool for more funding.
According to Fowler, acquiring funding will become a bit easier for the BES islands Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, as they will be administered by the Netherlands. EU funding will be accessible to them without complications. St. Maarten, even with its new status, will not be in a better position to access funding.
Permission from the local housing ministry is required before international funding groups can invest in “foreign countries” outside of Europe. The importance of having this permission granted in a timely fashion will be stressed to Antillean Housing Ministry officials who will be present at the conference.
When St. Maarten acquires country status, Government will have to give a guarantee to any international group that wants to invest in housing. Although the island will have the authority to borrow, these guarantees may not be easily met, taking its present liquidity position into consideration. Therefore, joint ventures between the local and international entities are the best bet, Fowler said.
