June 2018c

58 59 THE NATIONAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENT TRUST the program’s participating banks. “We hope to help 300 or so more middle-class individu- als,” Ramos adds. The NHDT office is located in George Town, Grand Cayman. It currently has ten employ- ees, and an eight-member Board of Directors oversees its operations. “We are financed and supported by the Cayman Islands government for our operational costs,” Ramos notes. “Cap- ital projects and developments are financed by loans and bonds, where the government has signed the guarantees and has pledged to settle any bond arrangements. There is also revenue that is generated from the sale of the affordable houses, which is reinvested for further development.” In fact, the company’s most recent project–the $2.5 million construction of 16 homes on a 10- acre site in Bodden Town, close to 20 existing affordable homes that were built in 2012–was financed from previous NHDT house sales. Going forward, Ramos says that there will always be a need for affordable housing and that the NHDT will continue to enhance how it assists Caymanians of low and moderate in- come purchase a home. “We’re trying to catch up to that need,” he states. “We’re completing a fresh batch of 16 houses, and we’re looking to build more houses based on demand and indi- viduals qualifying at the banks.Within the next three months, we’re planning another 20 hous- es in different districts, because the houses P.O. Box 262 Grand Cayman KY1 1601 345-916-3346 Always proud to support the National Housing Development Trust PREFERRED VENDOR n Terry & Sons Construction terryedmon22@gmail.com that we just recently have assigned to individuals, we’re trying to get mortgage financing for them. Our operational man- tra is housing made affordable for the people of Cayman with dreams of home ownership for Caymanian families.”