A new Department of Family and Children Services to replace the Welfare Department gained support Monday from homelessness advocate Kemar Saffrey. But he said he wants more than a name change.
Minister of Maritime Affairs Kirk Humphrey broke the news of the creation of the new entity during Sunday’s branch meeting of his St Michael South constituency. He said the new office would combine the departments in the Ministry of People’s Empowerment and all social service agencies to better respond and serve citizens.
Saffrey, president of the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness, contends the proposed change has been a long time in coming. He said the staff must be trained to handle vulnerable citizens and suggested its services should all be available from one place.
He said “This must come with training across social services because persons have complained over the years about how they are treated by workers when they go for services. They are already down in their luck and to go to a place where services are rendered already and further put down in the gutter is not something that people like, so we would like to see retraining or training rather for persons within this department.
“We would also like to see the department come in under one building. We don’t want it to be a case where persons have to go here for welfare services, there for child care services, here for human strengthening services, there for this or that programme. We hope the Government can find a building that can house all of these organisations so that persons are not scattered all over the place.”
Saffrey also made a case for Government to review the rental agreement between welfare services and landlords, explaining that this has been one of the biggest challenges in providing housing for vulnerable people.
“We don’t want a case where the rent is taking longer to be paid to people so that landlords don’t evict people where that create homelessness,” said Saffrey. “We would also like to see in the landlord agreement, that Government agrees to partner with NGOs [non-governmental organisations] who also have a relationship with landlords to be able to pay the landlords through the organization which would cut out a lot of the red tape and be able to facilitate a number of things.”
The homelessness advocate also recommended that clients undergo a thorough review every six months and are exposed to such developmental programmes as financial literacy and initiatives to support dysfunctional families.
Saffrey also made an appeal for the new agency to ensure that homeless parents and children will not be left to live on the streets.
He also called for the director of the new department to have the necessary skill set to run the organization without “political interference, bias, or anything that would disadvantage those in need of assistance: He further stressed the need for a working partnership between the department with NGOs who provide social services. (SD)
