Give top priority to affordable homes 01 Apr 2021 / 23:42 H. OF all the tasks any government undertakes in nation-building, I cannot think of a more crucial one than housing the people. Not just any kind of housing, but affordable homes. And by the same token, affordable not merely on paper but within the means of particularly the low-income population, better known as the B40 group. Readers of this column might get the impression that this is a problem that exists only in developing countries. It is not. The United States of America is touted as the world’s richest nation but when it comes to housing its people, there is no doubt that the US has failed its poor population miserably.