‘Shelter in a storm’: BAEH city centre open to bring homeless out of harm’s way

The Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) city shelter is fully ready and prepared to house its clients during the passage of Tropical Storm Elsa, predicted to affect the island early on Friday, BAEH president  Kemar Saffrey has announced.

Clients have already started coming into the shelter since Wednesday after first being notified about the impending tropical cyclone, Saffrey told Barbados TODAY.

He declared: “The Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness is ready for the upcoming Storm Elsa; we have put everything in place with the partnership of Government, DEM (Department of Emergency Management) and the Ministry of Education who is in charge of shelter management.

“As of yesterday they have been using the shelter as soon as the storm [was announced], so the shelter is available for them to be able to get out of the  weather at any point in time. We have already called in our security team, our shelter management team, and we have put everyone on standby.”

Saffrey also stressed that all necessary water and food items were on standby in case access to outside services were impaired and that all COVID-19 protocols will continue to be enforced.

He said: “We have the necessary food, we have water ready, we have a backup generator, and we also have light capacity for over six hours in case the power goes off, so we have certain things in place. Most of our clients would have already gone through COVID-19 checks, so we know they are good to some levels and the protocols will be there. We can hold up to 90 persons but the shelter is ready, and there to support the homeless if they need assistance.” (SB)