Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Carol Anthony

Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Hope is coming for the island's homeless in the new year as government keeps on top of plans to develop and improve shelters and programmes for street people.

Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner, Carol Anthony, a member of the Board of Supervision, says the new strategic plan is awaiting full implementation. The board is an arm of the former Ministry of Local Government.

"There was a study sponsored by PIOJ (Planning Institute of Jamaica) and coming out of that, we will be looking at what we will need to put up in each parish," she says. The study is being conducted by well-known psychiatrist and lecturer, Dr. Wendel Abel, and should be ready for publication early next year.

The improvement to shelters all over the island will be a replica of the current initiative at the Open Arms facility near the Bellevue Hospital in downtown Kingston. It will seek to train people to care for the mentally ill and the indigent, as well as provide and seek training for those homeless who are trainable.

In addition, the strategic plan will discourage street-feeding programmes, as well as create policies to govern non-governmental organisations which care for street people.

Public-education programme

"We will be doing a public-education programme to inform the entire Jamaica as to who they can call, what they can do, and try to let people be aware that these people are somebody's mother, somebody's father, somebody's brother, so that we can be more sensitive and caring," Anthony states.

She discloses that the housing-for-the-indigent programme is to come back on stream as Government moves to provide more affordable housing for the homeless. Land has already been earmarked for the project.

"We are hoping if we get that (the programme restarted), we will be able to move along with our other social partners out there - Food For the Poor and other social organisations - that from time to time have helped us," she says.