Progress Made for Affordable Housing: MoU Signed between the Government and SMHDF

The Government of Sint Maarten moved one step closer to the realization of additional
affordable housing by signing an agreement with the Sint Maarten Housing Development
Foundation on Friday, March 17, 2023. This agreement makes it possible for SMHDF to receive
land in Hope Estate that was earmarked by the Government for social housing and paves the
way for accessing Trust Fund Support.
This Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was created as part of the housing project of the
Government of Sint Maarten to demonstrate the commitment of the participants to work in
close partnership towards financially healthy and sustainable social housing on Sint Maarten.
This MoU was preceded by the existing performance agreement as signed on 23 July, 1997,
between the two parties.
According to Minister Egbert Doran, “ This agreement puts us closer to the realization of
building more needed homes for the people of Sint Maarten. I look forward to sitting with the
world Bank and the Steering Committee in the coming days to finalize the funding needed to
start this project”
In August 2022, the Council of Ministers approved Sint Maarten’s Spatial Development Strategy
2030 which considers that adequate and affordable housing for the citizens of Sint Maarten is
regarded as a cardinal requirement to sustain a good quality of life. The Steering Committee of
the Sint Maarten Recovery and Resilience Trust Fund earmarked funding for this project which
was subject to revision of the existing performance agreement and World Bank’s appraisal in
December 2021 and as reconfirmed on March 7, 2022.
As part of the preparation for this project, the Government agreed to issue land in long lease at
Hope Estate (meetbrief 095/2011) to SMHDF for the construction of social housing last
November.