HOMELESS FOR CHRISTMAS - Exposed to elements and crooks, Ras Emmanuel sleeps on edge of city after eviction

Fifty-seven-year-old Walter Duncan has been literally sleeping on the edge of the capital city for the last six months. His bed is a two-and-a-half-foot concrete wall at the Kingston waterfront. A piece of cardboard provides a buffer between his slender frame and the bitter, cold concrete.

Ras Emmanuel, as Duncan is known to many, has mastered the art of sleeping without turning, as the slightest lapse in judgement could see him plunge into the 15-metre deep waters slapping the other side of the wall.

Yesterday, Ras Emmanuel took a few minutes from his ‘hustle’ of washing cars in the vicinity of the waterfront to give The Gleaner a peek into his world as a homeless person – his struggles, deprivation, and, yet, a zest for life.

Two events in life recently have prompted a drastic change in his life.

First, Ras Emmanuel was kicked out of his place of abode on Tower Street in June, when he and the owner of the premises had a disagreement. His belongings, including the few pieces of clothes he had, were stolen.

And, as if the lack of a shelter was not a significant enough challenge, Ras Emmanuel’s thriving coconut jelly business on the waterfront went under after the authorities reportedly ordered him to desist from operating in the area now populated by businesses at Victoria Pier.

INEQUALITY CONCERNS

Ras Emmanuel stands as a metaphor of the growing inequality in the country, a concern cited in the United Nations Development Programme’s 2018 Human Development Index report issued this month. It indicated that despite a nominal increase in Jamaica’s ranking over the previous year, there are growing concerns that fast-rising inequality in the northern Caribbean island is placing vulnerable groups at greater risk.

Sleeping without a roof over his head is not just Ras Emmanuel’s reality, as nearly 2,000 persons are registered as homeless across the country.

Last month, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie broke ground for a shelter for homeless persons in the Corporate Area on King Street, downtown Kingston, at a cost of $140 million.

He said that the facility would cater to more than 300 Jamaicans living on the streets who were lacking proper care.

That transitional centre might not, however, be a sustainable home for Ras Emmanuel and scores of others. A former student of Frankfield Comprehensive High, now Edwin Allen High, he hails from Clarendon and migrated to Kingston since 1978.

Describing himself as the “original coconut jellyman on the waterfront”, he said, “Mi a foundation man down here. A nearly 40 years mi deh pon this strip, you know. Dem people here come yah come see me and dem start fight out all seller that dem come here and see. Dem set police pon we so we affi run up and down,” Ras Emmanuel recounted.

He eventually dismantled his jelly cart, turned it into a small trolley, and tried selling other items, but it did not work out for him.

“When night come, me just lay down pon the wall and sleep, and daylight mi get up and guh juggle,” he said.

Urban-planning experts like Dr Carol Archer, a professor in the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of Technology, warn that Ras Emmanuel’s fate might befall many other poor hustlers in downtown.

Archer believes that gentrification – the reclamation of urban districts along middle-class lines – could marginalise many traditional downtowners, “especially if they build seven-storey blocks like on South Avenue” – a reference to the swanky 20 South complex on the outskirts of New Kingston.

The urban-planning expert believes that stakeholders like the Government’s Urban Development Commission have not played a strong enough role in giving the poor a seat at the table in the vision of a redeveloped Kingston.

Describing the redevelopment project as uncoordinated, Archer believes that the reshaping of downtown must offer”safe spaces” and “employment opportunities for the marginalised and the unskilled”.

Critics have pointed out that new-look downtown Kingston will also need to get a grip non the crime situation, from petty thefts to extortion and murders.

Despite not having much, Ras Emmanuel has not escaped visitation from unscrupulous persons while sleeping in the open. He told The Gleaner that a thug took his wallet from his pocket early Monday morning but discovered that it was empty.

“Inna me sleep me deh and dis bwoy ask me if me no see a gyal after the man search mi out already, you know, and me jump up and see him,” he said.

At a time when many Jamaicans are feverishly making plans for the holidays and looking forward to spending time with family and friends, Ras Emmanuel is not feeling the excitement.

“Christmas will find me sleeping on the wall,” he told The Gleaner.

“Mi nuh have no money, no clothes. Mi nah go nowhere more than right ya so sit down, where Christmas come catch me, and if me can, buy a piece of bread or raisin bread and cornbread, drink a soda and just give thanks for life.”

“Me rich!” Ras Emmanuel quipped, adding, “Me no fussy about nothing. Life is my greatest wish and me have that.”

Dane Duncan, Ras Emmanuel’s 18-year-old son who lives with his mother, said he prays regularly for his father’s safety.

He had high praises for both his parents, but noted that his dad, especially, encourages him not to get involved in antisocial behaviour.

“Him no want us to get into bad company; he wants us to go to school and get a good education.”

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com