A new home for the homeless in Spanish Town

That’s the hope of Mayor of Spanish Town Norman Scott who made the declaration yesterday at the St Catherine Infirmary where several officials gathered to mark World Homeless Day.

“On a day that the rest of the world is celebrating we in St Catherine are proud to say that we are not just celebrating but we are showing that we care, said the Mayor. “I want to announce that we have gotten an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with the Anglican Diocese Church, they have an empty building close to this location and they have offered it to us where we are going to be taking over that building and we are renovating it and we are hoping that come next month, which is Local Government Month we will be able to open that residence where in Spanish Town there won’t be any more homeless persons again because we are going to make a residence available to those persons who roam the streets.

“We want to quickly renovate this building and we want to put those persons who roam the streets to have a place where they can sleep at nights. They already have a place where they can come and have a bath, get some food but they are now going to have somewhere they can call their home.”

The facility identified is basically next door to the existing infirmary and will be able to house a maximum of 12 street people at once. It is part of an ongoing strategy of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation to reduce the number of persons sleeping on the streets. It will bolster existing facilities such as the Spanish Town Care Centre situated on the grounds of the infirmary and a drop-in centre based in Linstead. Currently there are 26 persons being housed at the Spanish Town Infirmary which is managed by the Poor Relief Department.

World Homeless Day is observed October 10 each year to raise awareness on the importance of providing support to the homeless.

Across the world over, many homeless persons are generally classified as mentally challenged. But in a lot of cases these individuals have their faculty intact and the situation is simply a case of falling into extreme hardship, a point made by officials from the Poor Relief Department.

According to 2017 data read out by Camille Hudson, assistant inspector of the poor in charge of homelessness, a total of 171 persons are classified as homeless in St Catherine.

President of the St Catherine Chamber of Commerce Dennis Robotham, called for the re-education of our young people to become more conscious of the needs of the poor and destitute.

“I think that it is incumbent on the governance and the government to look into this area. I think the education of our youths particularly, need to be revisited. I think that we have left out that moral aspect in our school system, and while we look at the academics and sport aspects of our school, we seem to leave the moral aspect out of it. We need to educate our youngsters to understand there comes a time when they also will become old. Some of them will become mentally challenged, physically challenged, and they ought to be educated to understand that these (homeless people) are among us,” said Robotham.

“It is time that we begin to show the kind of love and the kind of affection and care that we need to give to our less fortunate.”

In attendance to mark the special occasion was Custos Rotolorium of St Catherine Icylin Golding; Anglican Priest Courtney Carribice; Chief Executive Officer, St Catherine Municipal Corporation Andre Griffiths; Chairman of the Poor Relief Department Cllr. Keisha Lewis, among a host of other officials.

Members of the homeless community were feted with numerous free services and items such as clothing, optical care, health checks, and grooming.

A similar exercise was also carried out across the parish at infirmaries located in Linstead, Old Harbour and Portmore. 

According to the Poor Relief Department it feeds 200 street people daily, however, the majority are not homeless.