More homes, more homeless
Population in need of assistance increases despite rapid growth in St Catherine
Published:Sunday | October 13, 2024 | 12:10 AMCorey Robinson - Senior Staff Reporter
It is one of the fastest-growing parishes, with several housing developments emerging yearly. Yet, St Catherine also has a rapidly growing population of the homeless and persons in need of assistance, a situation that outreach workers fear could worsen.
Last Thursday, the St Catherine Municipal Corporation’s Poor Relief Department (PRD) organised a Wellness Day of Care and Entertainment for the Homeless in recognition of World Homeless Day 2024. The event took place at the St Catherine Infirmary on Monk Street in Spanish Town.
More than 200 homeless people and those living on the streets attended the event, where they received makeovers, health checks, drug counselling, food, clothing, and religious support.
According to St Catherine’s assistant inspector of the poor and homelessness coordinator in the PRD, Dr Camille Hudson, there are more than 300 homeless people across the parish, and at least 200 of them are fed daily by the PRD. That number, however, is only an estimate.
Hudson emphasised that this group is separate from those classified as ‘persons in need’. Many in this latter category include teachers and other professionals who have become displaced due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19 from four years ago.
Additionally, there are ‘street people’ – individuals who have homes but spend their days soliciting help on the streets.
In contrast, homeless persons are defined as those without stable residences, making any location in the parish their home.
All three groups are on the rise in St Catherine, whose major towns such as Portmore, Spanish Town, Old Harbour and Linstead are often a transit hub for the homeless.
The faces of those seeking help change daily, with their often-heartbreaking stories encompassing mental illness, evictions, deportation from countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, and displacement caused by disasters.
The 2023 Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica (ESSJ), published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), noted that some 1,626 adults and children were made homeless due to fires in 2023, which is a reduction from 1,901 in 2022. Children accounted for 27.2 per cent of those rendered homeless.
“Homeless persons are those who live anywhere on the streets: in the culverts, under any tree, under piazzas, on the [Spanish Town] Hospital bench – anywhere that night catches them. Some of them live in old cars and abandoned buildings,” Hudson explained, adding that some persons are mentally ill and are on the streets because their families struggle to cope with their behaviours.
Hudson also highlighted the plight of deportees, or “involuntarily returned migrants”, who require not only medical care but also social rehabilitation and reintegration assistance. However, the PRD’s outreach efforts are challenged due to resource shortage, prompting a call for help from all sectors in St Catherine.
“We need some real sensitisation and educational programmes for our families in St Catherine. What I find with some of the homeless persons is that the family doesn’t readily know how to treat and deal with these persons’ situations. So that is what we try to do, get out there in the houses, show them what they can do with what they have, and we back them up with our little resources,” Hudson told The Sunday Gleaner.
In response to the pressing social issues, St Catherine’s justices of the peace have been working to address matters at the root of family challenges, explained Cleon Porter, a justice of the peace and head of the welfare sub-committee for persons living with disability in the parish.
“We are providing counselling and chaplaincy services, helping with the cooking, as well as sponsorship toward the event itself,” Porter said of last Thursday’s event.
“Outside of that, we continue to work with the communities, especially the elderly and others in need,” he explained. “It comes back to the family. Families in Jamaica need to stick together. When you find that there is no family support, coupled with drug abuse and mental illnesses, that is one of the major causes for homelessness in the parish.”
Porter noted that while homelessness is an issue countries around the world grapple with, there is a need for more infirmaries in Jamaica – “and one needs to be in Portmore because the numbers are growing in Portmore”.
He noted that some people are ending up homeless as the cannot afford their rent or mortgage.
Government estimates indicate that there are more than 2,000 homelesspeople across the island.
Last year, the National Council on Drug Abuse reached 1,232 homeless individuals in Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, St Ann, Trelawny, St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, Clarendon, and St Thomas, through its TEK IT TO DEM programme. Considered high-risk, they were treated to counselling, healthcare and other life-improvement activities.
According to the ESSJ report, “Under the Indigent Housing Programme, six homes were built and 448 homes were repaired, while the living conditions of 454 family members were improved through new units and repairs at a total cost of $64 million. Additionally, the parishes of Trelawny, St Ann and Clarendon will be able to accommodate an additional 65 homeless men and women in night shelters.
“Phase two of the Desmond McKenzie Transitional Centre for the Homeless began and will facilitate the further removal of at least 50 males and females from the streets and into a rehabilitative and supportive environment,” read the report.