The Prime Minister New Year's gift to 780 homeowners was mortgage forgiveness.
For sure, the UDP has made much political mileage out of it - and even though detractors warn about vote buying and insider trading - for the persons who fall within the 50 thousand dollar or less bracket, it is a saving grace.
Many of these folks have had their mortgages bouncing around for a decade or more going from BIMCO to a Building Society to St. James, even to commercial banks - often times without them even know. All those paper transactions were part of the PUP's housing boom - which, in a silent way, led to Belize's own little subprime crisis with toxic mortgages being bundled off into securitization schemes.
That's another very long story for another time - for homeowners the story is no end of month mortgage to pay. For retired teacher Eric Neal that means 480 dollars he doesn't have to pay every month.
He thought he wasn't included in the program because he pays at Heritage Bank, but on Wednesday the Prime Minister announced on radio that he would be included - he went to the UDP headquarters to thank the PM - whom we had just interviewed.
We spoke to Neal about what it means:
Jules Vasquez
"When did you first take it out, with whom and what route did it travel to end up now at the bank?"
Eric Neal, retired teacher
"It was BIMCO first on the northern road, then from there when the other government took they demolish BIMCO and then they went to St. James and the from there it went to another one in between but then it ended up at the Alliance Bank then now Heritage Bank. So that was the route it took."
Jules Vasquez
"And so throughout the history of this loan you've paid all those different agencies?"
Eric Neal
"Constantly, I paid faithfully."
Jules Vasquez
"And so you no longer have to pay that?"
Eric Neal
"No more."
Jules Vasquez
"How does that translate? What does that mean to you?"
Eric Neal
"It means everything in this world to me. I mean gee whiz! The balance of the loan is being written off. It's between $8,000 - $10,000 I guess. That's a heck of a lot you know Jules."
Alfonso Noble, Guardian Newspaper
"$480.00 a month. What will you do with that money now?"
Eric Neal
"Put it to very good use."
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