Shelter looking to finalise purchase of home base

The Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) is now racing against time to purchase the building it occupies in Bridgetown for its base, so that it does not itself become homeless in another year.

The organisation, which has been occupying its current Spry Street, City location since November 2019, was given a three-year timeframe in which to come up with the funds for the purchase of the property. The selling price was slashed from $2.4 million to $1 million.

“We have to focus on purchasing that building before it gets back on the market, and from what I am hearing, some eyes are on it. So it is a rush now to really get it before it goes back there. We don’t have a choice right now,” said BAEH Founder and President Kemar Saffrey.

He said it was for that reason the association was now focusing heavily on its ‘I Pledge’ campaign, which is aimed at raising the $1 million in the coming months.

To raise the funds under this initiative, the BAEH is seeking to pin down 2 000 individuals who are able to give $500 each. It can be given over five months.

Saffrey told Barbados TODAY he was hopeful the campaign would facilitate the purchase of the Spry Street building, explaining that the focus of the organisation had to change over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic which delayed fundraising.

“When we took over the building in 2019, the agreement with the bank was that the building would be off the market for three years. The building is at a price tag of $1 million and we had an agreement that we would purchase the building within that three-year span. Obviously, with COVID starting in 2020 and up to now, our focus had to change to deal with our
clients.

“We were in lockdown most of the time and when the lockdown came we were dealing with all the clients on the street. So, it became harder to focus on funding when you had to deal with clients,” he explained.

However, Saffrey said, with no lockdown currently in effect, the organisation could give more focus to the fundraising campaign which he said would take centre-stage.

BAEH, formerly known as the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS), has changed locations twice since it began in 2009.

In 2017, FirstCaribbean International Bank pledged an annual donation of $20 000 over five years through its charitable arm, FirstCaribbean ComTrust Foundation, to help the organisation purchase and retrofit the building. (MM)