Opinion: Chad Powell Jr is right – Caymanians face serious challenges Loop Cayman Islands

Black Immigrant Daily News

Readers are asked to note that Op-eds do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of Loop Cayman.

by Alric Lindsay

The three-minute speech of young Caymanian, Chad Anthony Powell Jr before the UK House of Commons in the UK Youth Parliament recently was a moving and touching display of the love and concern that Mr Powell has for these islands.

The dangers heeded by Mr Powell, however, in respect of affordable housing challenges, brain drain, and climate change, are not just applicable to young Caymanians, but to Caymanians on a whole who are seeking a stake in their own country.

Housing

On the topic of affordable housing, Mr Powell lamented:

I love the Cayman Islands and I intend to live and grow old there one day. But the immensely high cost of living and our disastrous housing crisis has caused many people my age, many people like me, to not only consider but pretty much have it, not even in the back of their minds, not even thinking about it… they are going to move away.

In my opinion, Mr Powell is spot on here; Cayman does have a housing crisis. In fact, I believe that this crisis is impacted by many variables, some of which are frequently discussed by government ministers and outlined in reports, including the recent population Census report produced by the Economics & Statistics Office.

Looking at the Census report, for example, it is clear that a substantial portion of the population is earning less than $3,000 per month, below what some argue is required to cope with the high cost of living in the Cayman Islands and subaqueous to the high GDP per capita often boasted about for wage earners in the country.

As to what the current government has done about the situation, I have to be honest and say that they have not just stood by and let people suffer.

Instead, members of the new government have stepped in to assist, including by way of the establishment of new programmes to defray some living expenses.

These programmes include the deferral of electricity rate hikes, restructuring the Needs Assessment Unit (NAU) to make it more efficient, and working with stakeholders to come up with other ideas as to how to soften the blow to those living and working in the Cayman Islands.

In addition to the current government’s efforts, various community organisations assist those in financial need from time to time. Such help includes food and utility voucher programmes, along with helping some people who find themselves homeless from time to time.

With respect to the availability of affordable homes, the Minister of Housing, Jay Ebanks, is in the process of executing plans for more affordable housing across Grand Cayman. The reality he may face, however, is that there may be hundreds more applications for affordable homes than there are affordable homes being built by the government or otherwise coming on the market.

Notwithstanding these endeavours, only so much can be done as both the government and charitable organisations are limited to what their resources allow them to do.

The risk of an inevitable resource depletion is exacerbated by other factors impacting the Cayman Islands’ market, including lending rates and real estate speculation.

With respect to borrowing rates, for example, banks have consistently raised interest rates on lending throughout 2022, which they say they have done to match increases in lending rates by the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve.

If this continues, those who were just living day-to-day and near the financial edge before the rate increases could soon face homelessness.

The danger of having no home was also echoed in Mr Powell’s speech in the UK Youth Parliament when he explained that, after speaking to others his age, their concern was that “It’s too expensive to live” in Cayman and that they will “never be able to afford a home” in Cayman” and will “have to move away.”

Powell emphasised that it was “Not that they want to but they have to… Because if given the choice, they would definitely stay in our beautiful islands.”

As part of the affordable housing solution, Mr Powell mentioned that, last year, his Youth Parliament moved a motion called “Restriction on High-Cost Housing and Implementation of Land and Housing Purchase Licences for Non-Caymanians.”

Mr Powell explained: “This was an effort to get restriction on the price of houses and the purchase of properties by persons not even residing in the Cayman Islands.”

However, this motion appears to have fallen on deaf ears because, since the motion was moved by Mr Powell’s Youth Parliament, the sale of property in Cayman remains without any price or ownership restrictions.

In fact, international speculators are viewing Cayman as ripe for development and profits and are seeking special Local Companies Control Licences (which do not require Caymanian participation for 12 years if granted) to operate as property developers and real estate agents.

Without any moratorium being placed on the fast-paced development, no long-term sustainable development plan and with no restrictions being implemented as Powell intimated, land and buildings will be subject to constant and increasing speculation, forever putting property ownership outside the reach of the average Caymanian and any foreign worker living in the Cayman Islands making less than $3,000 per month.

Put another way, instead of creating net worth for Caymanians, more net worth will be created for international, high-net-worth persons, some of whom may not be materially impacted by the high cost of living and other issues faced by Caymanians.

Without market intervention or a moratorium, Powell’s prophecy (and that of his colleagues) is right: more Caymanians are “going to move away,” including those currently living in Cayman and young Caymanian university graduates who will seek a home elsewhere, outside Cayman.

Brain drain

By making the decision to permanently leave Cayman or not deciding to return to live on Cayman, a negative, unintended outcome may materialise.

In particular, the leaders of our economic pillars will, in due course, take note of the high number of qualified Caymanian professionals who are no longer keen to return to the Cayman Islands to contribute to local companies, leading to what Mr Powell refers to as a “brain drain” happening in other parts of the Caribbean.

Bizarrely, while a “brain drain” is predicted for Caymanians, Cayman’s population is steadily rising to 100,000 inhabitants, adding to the over 100 nationalities already living here.

In my opinion, this suggests that any one or more of the following scenarios may be taking place:

that the 100 or so other nationalities living here may be finding some way (unknown to Caymanians) to cope with the high cost of living; orthat members of some other nationalities are possibly being offered lucrative opportunities that are not being afforded to Caymanians

Regardless of which of these (or any other) scenarios that might exist, it is evident that no one, save for Mr Powell and his colleagues, is bold enough to both speak publicly and take relevant policy steps to further curb the suffering of many Caymanians.

Failing to address the issue in the way Mr Powell suggests may also mean that, ultimately, the situation may become absolutely unbearable for a substantial number of Caymanians.

It goes without saying that, once circumstances become unendurable, there are some members of society who will make bad decisions and engage in criminal activity, including theft and armed robbery to take rather than earn what they need.

If Cayman’s social and economic climate Cayman continues to get heated as it has been doing lately, then the concern raised by Mr Powell is right; we may eventually lose all our Caymanians, while strangely and simultaneously creating non-Caymanian beneficiaries with long, safe and sure economic futures.

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