The island’s leading campaigner for the homeless has pushed back against a viral social media video that sparked concerns about the treatment of homeless people near the Treasury Building in Bridgetown. The footage shows a woman and a man complaining that police and sanitation workers confiscated and disposed of their belongings to clear the area.
Kemar Saffrey, president of the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH), has strongly refuted the video’s claims, telling Barbados TODAY that the charity has thoroughly investigated the incident and found the allegations of mistreatment to be false.
According to Saffrey, a cleanup was conducted by the Sanitation Services Authority (SSA) in collaboration with the police. He said there was proof that their actions were lawful and conducted within appropriate standards.
“When they visited the area, they would have stated to the client that they were told that there was going to be a cleanup of the area and that they were there to conduct the official cleanup so that the BTMI [Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.] could finish the boarding up of the area,” he explained.
“In the video that I saw and after my own investigations, when the police and the SSA crew arrived, they told the client that before they move anything, please take any possessions that they would want to keep before they start to discard what is left.”
Saffrey said all the other homeless individuals complied except for the woman in the video, who allegedly refused to remove her belongings and “started to behave in an unseemly way, which then would have brought the authorities to their act because she was cursing and behaving in an unbecoming manner”.
The video has fuelled rumours that the homeless community is being displaced ahead of Barbados hosting nine matches in the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup next month. But Saffrey, who sits on the tournament’s national organising committee said: “That is not accurate.”
He added that he is seeking to ensure “that anything that they do, in and around the city, and any other location that has the homeless, that they take the most humane approach to cleanup, and to be able to assist them.”
Saffrey further revealed that multiple agencies had offered the woman in the video housing solutions and shelter services two weeks ago, which she declined, while others had accepted shelter and/or medical care.
Saffrey noted that contrary to public perception, only around six individuals actually sleep at the Treasury Building overnight, while others merely gather there during the day but are not homeless.
He said the T20 World Cup had provided an opportunity to enhance support, with several able-bodied homeless individuals being employed as part of the Bridgetown cleaning crew to maintain the city during and after the tournament.
“Jobs are always good for the homeless community, especially strong and able-bodied persons,” Saffrey suggested. “Being able to place anybody that we can into employment is a win-win because once they’re making money, then we can proceed with helping them to find rooms that they can rent or put together and find housing solutions.”
The BAEH president noted that despite the visible presence of some long-term homeless individuals, the alliance has been successful in preventing new cases and reintegrating many people back into society. (RG)
