City homelessness must not be ignored in redevelopment plans – Saffrey

As major projects reshape Bridgetown, the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) is warning that the capital’s renewal risks leaving people on the streets behind, particularly those living with mental health challenges.

BAEH head Kemar Saffrey sounded the alarm on Thursday at a national consultation on homelessness in The City and suburbs, organised by the BAEH at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.

The forum was prompted by increasing complaints about people sleeping in Independence Square, Heroes Square, Jubilee Gardens and Golden Square, Saffrey said.

But homelessness was not solely the responsibility of the BAEH and required a coordinated response from all groups as Bridgetown continues to transform, he noted.

Saffrey said: “We’ve seen the problem in Bridgetown; we’re getting a lot of complaints about the areas in Bridgetown such as Independence Square, Heroes Square and also Jubilee Gardens, Golden Square, and some other public spaces.

“We understand that everyone plays a role in homelessness and not just us as the organisation. We wanted to bring all the key stakeholders, especially those that are in the area of Bridgetown.”

The issue was particularly pressing, said the campaigner, given the scale of development planned for the capital, including the expected arrival of major projects such as the Afreximbank headquarters.

“With all this development and all these new projects – Afreximbank, the property across the Wharf Road and these other expected projects – I think that if we don’t address it now, then for us there’s a fear that when not just some of our people and our residents feel the fear of having to walk down to town and being accosted by people, then what about our tourists? If we are to protect that, I think we have to be proactive rather than reactive.”

A “big issue” for Saffrey is the mental health of some people living on the streets. Their inability to consistently access psychiatric care and medication was contributing to situations that could become disruptive or frightening for the public, he said.

“I’ve seen cases, I’ve been called to cases where persons are not taking medication, where persons have not gone to the psychiatric hospital in years. You cannot find them for whatever reason, and then they behave in a way that the public fears, and they leave the public spaces in a way that also affects how we view Bridgetown.”

The BAEH head said its shelter, which has 140 beds, also faced limitations in dealing with people who were under the influence of drugs or alcohol or who were not complying with treatment requirements.

“Obviously, as a shelter we have to be careful who we put in the shelter. It cannot be under the influence of alcohol or any form of drugs. If you’re someone with a mental health issue, you have to use your medication.”

He urged for more effective partnerships between government agencies and the BAEH, including greater support from health and social service professionals.

Saffrey also pointed to homelessness emerging as a concern outside The City, identifying Dover, Oistins and Speightstown among areas where the organisation had received complaints.

But, he said: “I think that we need to relook, and I think that we also have to look at [whether] we [are] serious about partnership.

“There are solutions that we know, but they are not all going to be sexy. It’s things that we have to do, and we cannot have people just behaving like this in Bridgetown.”

Saffrey said the country must act before a serious incident forces action.

“There always will be homeless persons, but we cannot have persons, especially with mental health, allowed to roam the streets, and when they hit somebody, or when they do something, we’re saying, oh, we should have done this, we could have done this.

“So we need a proactive approach to homelessness, and we need it now.”

(SB)