AN EXTRA 100 BEDS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE HOMELESS BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Phase 2 of the Desmond McKenzie Transitional Centre for the Homeless, located at Church Street, Downtown Kingston, will be completed and furnished in time for Christmas—this is the commitment made by Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie. The Minister was speaking to the media at Justice Square, King Street on Tuesday (October 14), after meeting with members of the homeless population who occupy the space.
“I can give the assurance to the country and to the people in Kingston that before Christmas, the second phase of the transitional facility will be ready for occupancy”
The facility, which was opened in 2022, is operated by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation’s Poor Relief Department and is one of three such facilities in the Kingston and St Andrew area.
Currently, the facility’s dormitories house up to forty (40) clients, but the new addition will accommodate 100 beds—a part of the Ministry’s bid to minimise the issue of homelessness in Jamaica. In his address to the media, Minister McKenzie pledged that the furnishings will be put in place before Christmas to ensure that the facility can be open to accommodate the growing number of homeless individuals.
The Minister added that the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, in collaboration with other ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the National Housing Trust (NHT), will be fast-tracking other programmes that are in the pipeline to ensure that adequate housing is available for users of the service. He made the comment alluding to preliminary data collected from the National Homeless Survey, which indicates that the number of unhoused individuals in the corporate area has increased.
“I am going to be incorporating what we are doing, again with the Ministry of Health, who has been on board. But I have urged them [the homeless] that once we would have worked the thing out, we will be ensuring that those who want to go to the shelters, can go to the shelters”, he said.
“The survey that we have been doing on the homeless population has revealed, based on the early findings, that the number of homeless persons within this vicinity has increased”, the Minister added.
In recent times, Minister McKenzie expressed that beginning next financial year, the Ministry will begin to mobilise plans to establish at least one homeless shelter in each Parish to help alleviate the homeless crisis on the island.
Just last week, the Board of Supervision, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Social Development Commission, embarked on an island-wide survey to determine the number of homeless people across Jamaica. This information will be instrumental in formulating policies and programmes that will be beneficial to the homeless who are living on the streets and in state care.