Retiree urges GERS to study land for affordable housing and to press legislature on pension pause

During the public-comment period on March 26, retiree Mary Morin asked the Government Employees' Retirement System Board to ask its development committee to study whether acreage the system holds on the East End of Saint Croix could be used for an affordable housing project.

Morin described persistent housing shortages on the island and said she was repeating a request made years earlier. She suggested a public–private partnership or other arrangements that would allow townhouses or appropriately scaled housing to be developed on the property.

Morin also raised a separate issue about pension law language. She said a previously drafted legislative provision would permanently cancel pensions if a beneficiary were incarcerated; she urged the board to press legislators to change the language so that pensions are paused during incarceration and reinstated after the sentence is served.

The chair said both suggestions would be noted and that the retiree could expect a response from the executive director. No formal board action was taken on either request at the meeting.