City shelter now open, greets five

First five then eight people have spent the first two nights in the City’s first purpose-built homeless shelter since the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness officially opened its doors on Spry Street.

The association’s president Kemar Saffrey said five men slept at the shelter on Monday night, and about eight people, including women, were there the following night.

And people are already showing interest in the shelter’s services, he reported.

Saffrey told Barbados TODAY: “It is yet early and people are still finding out that the shelter is now open, but we are seeing that growing interest.

“The numbers picking up and people are calling.

“Since Monday, we find that the guys coming to register early in the day to come back the night but sometimes they don’t turn up because they may be out late working for people or doing something else and when they finish they may think it is too late to come, but we would try to accommodate some of them.”

The shelter opens at 6 p.m. and closes at 10 p.m. until the following morning when breakfast is served.

He pointed out that while most people seeking to use the shelter are from St Michael and Christ Church, the Alliance to End Homelessness’ has been working with a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who would be able to use the shelter for their purposes as well.

Saffrey said: “We have been out on the road on Monday and Tuesday letting our clients know that, yes, we have opened officially.

“The first night my office team went home as late as 11 o’clock making sure that everything was in order.

“So we are in our early days yet and we have been working hard to ensure that people are comfortable when they get here.”

The shelter is equipped to accommodate 90 persons per night, according to Saffrey.

He added: “The important thing is that even if one person sleeps a night, that is one person that we know that we took off the streets and we feel good about it.

“Before, there was no other place that these people who we consider to be homeless could go, but now they do.

“And we are seeing homelessness from different perspectives. We are seeing fire victims who have nowhere to go, and we are seeing men living on the streets.

“We are seeing women with nowhere to go and we are seeing men coming out of jail and have nowhere to go.

“So we know that there are people who will need to use our shelter and we are just asking Barbadians for their continued support and to help anyhow they can.”

The alliance president also issued a reminder that the shelter was not intended to be a residential centre, but rather a place where people sleep at night.

During the day, the shelter’s staff would be available to provide those in need with the necessary tools for their reintegration into society, said Saffrey.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb