Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne has come under heavy fire with a call for his resignation after claiming that the State pays half a million dollars a year to the founder of the island’s main homeless charity “to sing lullabies and read bedtime stories”.
During Wednesday morning’s debate on the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure in the House of Assembly, Thorne accused the Mia Mottley administration of paying the money to the “gentleman” who runs the organisation – later identified as the Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH).
The BAEH runs a shelter from its Spry Street headquarters.
“I left here yesterday, learning, and this is not to be facetious, that $500 000 yearly is now being paid to a gentleman, who has been campaigning in St Michael East,” Thorne told the House as it took up the budget appropriation for the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector.
“I will be specific,” the Christ Church South MP said. “I will target the area. I will identify everything. Let truth be told, that he, through his organisation is paid $500 000 every year to sing lullabies and read bedtime stories to the homeless. That is not right.”
But in a strongly-worded rebuke, an emotional Kemar Saffrey, the BAEH’s president, described Thorne’s remarks as degrading to homeless people and called for him to resign as both Opposition Leader and MP for Christ Church South.
In a stout defence of his organisation’s work, Saffrey contended that the alliance has been a refuge for the homeless for the past 15 years, only having received funding from the government during the past two years.
He maintained that the BAEH’s finances are in compliance with official requirements and are available for public scrutiny through the ministry.
“With the opposition leader saying what he said in Parliament. . . that I am singing lullabies and reading bedtime stories to the homeless, I find it offensive,” he told Barbados TODAY. “How can you use your position to degrade homeless people and to attack…? People have been given shelter on a nightly basis to help with their situation…then you are stating that the position that I am taking is to sing lullabies and read bedtime stories is disrespectful.
“I believe the opposition leader should take the time to remove himself from being opposition leader and also remove himself as an MP. He himself has stated that he has neglected his constituents. I have about six people including a woman and children from his constituency that have found themselves homeless and that could not be assisted by Mr. Thorne. I tried to reach him and was unsuccessful and they were unsuccessful too. Yet I ended up assisting them.”
Saffrey continued: “From the time we registered to the time the government [first] gave us money, we have been operating with the kind support of the Maria Holder Memorial Trust and donors.
“[How can you come to] …myself, as a young man in this country, from the age of 18, that decided he is going to pay attention to a sector that was neglected by the many in this country, and the young people that are working here [at the homeless shelter] on a day-to-day basis to get the homeless back on track…how can you degrade the organisation, how can you degrade the people on the streets by further stating that they are being sung lullabies and read bedtime stories. How can you use your political platform to disrespect the homeless like that?”
The BAEH founder declared that he did not mind Thorne’s attacks on him but branded his remarks as an attack on the homeless community. “They are not being sung lullabies to,” he insisted. “They are homeless, they are left on the streets, they are being put out. The same government he was a part of made decisions about the cost of living…and the party that he is a part of now did nothing for the homeless in this country. So, you cannot come and degrade and disrespect the homeless.”
The head of the homeless alliance also denied that he had been canvassing in a constituency, saying he visits all 30 ridings in response to residents’ calls to assist the homeless.
“I go into every single constituency in every single parish in this country on a weekly basis with my team,” he said. “People call and I go to them. My people wear branded [BAEH] shirts.”
Saffrey underscored that he and his team were working to fulfil the BAEH’s mandate to end homelessness in the country.
He declared: “I am simply doing my work. Now, if any MP is threatened by that, that is on their own merit. But my work as a homeless advocate doesn’t limit me to Bridgetown. Every single MP in this country benefits from the organisation reaching out and assisting where possible.
“So, you cannot come and say I [am] canvassing… because you see me in a particular area. I am in every area…. I work with the police, I work with community nurses, I work with social workers, anybody in those areas. The homeless is my business. I am a social advocate.
“Any time an opposition leader or any politician uses their political platform to disregard homelessness or the plights [of people] in this country, they are not fit for purpose,” Saffrey contended.
