President of the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) Kemar Saffrey says the burden on them is now greater than ever.
With non-nationals also seeking shelter and/or asylum at their facility on Spry Street, The City, he said all this has been adding to the challenges they face in trying to cater to the less fortunate in society.
“We have met with the various embassies and consulates here. While we are always willing to help, we are short-term, where persons can basically connect with their families to pay for the tickets to come back home. It cannot be something permanent. We have also seen persons seeking asylum in Barbados, and they want to stay at the shelter, but we try not to encourage that,” he told the media at his office, after a donation of computer equipment from Narma Restaurant & Beach Club.
Increase in numbers
“One of the things we want to be careful with the public is assuming that because they hear the word homeless, they think that we are the only ones that are supposed to play a role, but offering asylum is beyond our capabilities,” he added.
Last June, Saffrey said they experienced a drastic increase in the number of non-Barbadians using the shelter. This, he explained, was partly due to people arriving in Barbados on one-way tickets and ending up stranded without the financial means to return to their home countries or move on to their intended destinations.
Others were seeking asylum for various reasons, many of whom hailed not only from the Caribbean but also from Europe and the United States.
Saffrey said that despite those types of individuals decreasing in recent months, they were taking on more people than ever following the closure of the Clyde Gollop Shelter.
“So we’re the lone [shelter] facility on the island now, which puts a load on us right now of having to deal with a lot of cases. A lot of the agencies, whether it be HIV or the disability organisation, do not have a shelter, so we have to take on that burden.
“Most of the time, they can’t find housing for people who are displaced, so we have to carry that heavy burden. The organisation is inundated with the amount of work, and now that other agencies are affected, we have to carry the bulk of the load as it relates to shelter placement, finances and manpower,” he said.
Saffrey said they had also recorded an increase in the number of women and children seeking shelter during the Yuletide season, adding some of them were fleeing abusive relationships.
“We’re finding that some of the cases are due to abuse, but we are not equipped to deal with domestic cases. Domestic cases need a different approach, and that approach is taken by the Shelter For Women, and obviously, the different state agencies play a role, including police.
“We are a bit too vulnerable in terms of where we are as an organisation in Town. Plus we wear branded shirts, so we do not want to get into that, but we do referrals to the proper agencies,” he said.
Saffrey also said they were curtailing those seeking to use the facility as a free hotel, wanting to stay somewhere rent-free and get free food for a year or more.
He asked the public not to judge their work unfairly, lamenting that too many people were making snap judgements based on incorrect notions. “One of the challenges we face is, because they are seeing people on the streets, persons are wondering, ‘But why are they still on the street?’ We would like to make it abundantly clear that people have choices. Do not for once believe that we did not approach them and offer our services.
Mental health issues
“However, there are some people who, because of their mental health issues, because of their drug addiction, because of their attitude and their behaviour, their unwillingness and uncooperative behaviours towards rules, end up on the streets. So we cannot put ourselves at harm’s way in terms of dealing with people that do not want to comply with rules and regulations, do not want to take their medication or do not want to keep off drugs,” he said.
Saffrey added that some opportunists were seeking to score cheap political points.
“We oftentimes end up getting the abuse of political leaders and political candidates about the state of homelessness. The advocates, the politicians, those who want to score cheap points, are being abusive to an organisation that is the island’s lone facility managing homelessness on every part of the island, managing with just about 11 staff, most of whom are security or wardens.
“Might I add that the 40 to 50 people who sleep in this shelter are 40 to 50 people who are not on the streets tonight?
“People see a case of homelessness on the street, and without assessing that case, they abuse the organisation. Oftentimes, the family is not playing a role, or some of the social agencies have not stepped up to the plate. There’s secondary, underlying issues that we can see evidently that other social agencies need to play their part in. Homelessness is not the only issue facing a homeless person,” he said.
(CA)
