A Government housing programme designed to provide shelter for Barbadians in need is under scrutiny after reports of severe structural deterioration in some of the prefabricated houses imported from China.
During the Appropriation Bill, 2025 debate in House of Assembly yesterday, St Philip North MP Dr Sonia Browne delivered a scathing critique of the state of these homes, describing one in her constituency as “more rust than a house.”
She detailed the ongoing struggles of a resident who received one of the units after Hurricane Elsa destroyed her previous home.
“She’s awoken in the middle of the night with pipes spontaneously bursting, house flooding out. The floorboards, you can fall through them. The fixtures fall in and fall on the floor,” Browne said.
While expressing gratitude for the Government’s effort to provide housing, she raised concerns about the long-term viability of these homes.
“Going forward, what is the plan for these houses? Because she, like I am, is fairly scared that she would end up spending a lot of money – not that she’s not grateful. These people are very grateful – but at the same time, they want something that’s liveable,” she added.
The MP also asked if local craftsmen had been properly trained to maintain these structures and whether responsibility for upkeep remained with the Chinese builders.
“The house is in such a state, I almost want to say rebuild. What is the plan going forward in maintenance for such a young house that is rusting? It’s actually full of rust, all of it.”
Responding from the Well, Minister of Housing Dwight Sutherland defended the overall quality of the Chinese-built homes, stating that while issues had arisen, they were not widespread.
“Honourable Member, we have, and I’m going to give the whole gamut of the houses – we have 117 of these houses here. We’ve had problems with one or two of them, not many of them. We have 23 Hurricane Elsa victims living in these houses,” he stated.
Sutherland noted that similar houses had been purchased privately by individuals in areas like Wanstead and St George, where residents had expressed satisfaction with their performance.
“The structure, in our view, is very good, very sound,” he said, arguing that the main problem might be the quality of finishing rather than structural deficiencies.
Acknowledging previous complaints, the Minister revealed that the Government had recently addressed an issue at Haggatt Hall, where a ceiling collapsed due to faulty clips. However, he suggested that some problems could stem from early construction efforts, when local builders were first involved in assembling the houses.
“I suspect it’s the quality of the finishes,” Sutherland said. “We did audits on the houses at Haggatt Hall, Solaris Court, and Coconut Hall, and in my view, these houses are good houses for the ordinary man. But if we have to change the finishes on behalf of the tenant, we will do that.”
The Minister regretted that the issues had not been brought to his attention earlier.
“I’m sorry that this was not drawn to my attention before, or the attention of the department secretary, so we could have addressed this a long time ago. But these are things that can be fixed,” he assured.
Sutherland promised a site visit by the Director of Emergency Housing to assess the situation and confirmed that any defective finishes, fixtures, or flooring would be replaced.
“I will make sure, Honourable Member, that we address this problem frontally,” he pledged.
Despite the concerns raised, the Minister maintained that the housing programme remained an effective and affordable solution for Barbadians in need, noting that the units were built at half the cost of traditional housing.
“Most of the residents are comfortable in these houses. And if there is an issue with the finishes, we will have those changed,” he stressed.
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