Mayor Sees Hope for Mobay's Homeless

Under the alliance, which was formed last year, the homeless will be drafted in for counselling, treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration.

"I don't think the system we were operating was efficient as it should be. It needed additional assistance financially, expertise and knowledge," said Sinclair. "Open Heart Mission will bring to the table the expertise and the knowledge to deal with homeless people. They will garner more funds than we may be able to at the council because organisations overseas and even locally would be more comfortable to contribute to the NGOs than a government agency. That is the great benefit."

Sinclair is anticipating that the homeless will be introduced to backyard farming on land at the newly refurbished night shelter in Montego Bay where nearly 100 homeless persons sleep at nights.

Additionally, he is counting on a commitment by the National Solid Waste Management Authority to integrate some of these persons into their system for street cleaning and other duties.

The Westmoreland Association for Street People (WASP), headed by Barbara Stewart, and the Westmoreland Parish Council have, for the past eight years, been operating a shelter for the homeless in Savanna-la-Mar, the parish capital, on the premises of the infirmary.

Savanna-la-Mar's mayor, Bertel Moore, who chairs the Westmoreland Parish Council, said the 10 residents, all male, have been engaged in rearing broiler chickens for consumption and sale, and have reaped a crop of corn which they planted sometime last year.

Stewart said plans are also afoot to rear chickens for laying this year to bolster income.

In the meantime, the Montego Bay mayor indicated that a care centre completed late last year should become more efficient this year in serving the areas of "intake, feeding, counselling, medication and so forth".

Also assisting the effort is Joy Crooks, nurse administrator for the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI). CUMI, which is operating a programme from the rehabilitation day centre based at Brandon Hill, Montego Bay, works with the Cornwall Regional Hospital's (CRH's) Psychiatric Department where the patients are stabilised and then sent for continued rehabilitation at Brandon Hill.

Additionally CUMI is working with the CRH to secure an ambulance through a major fund-raiser.

The ambulance will assist in picking up the mentally ill from the streets and taking them to the hospital.

"The majority of the street people who are not getting proper supervision now are young people and all of them have drug-related problems. The mentally ill persons are in the minority," said Crooks.