New homeless facility to open this month

Christopher McIntosh has only one desire and that is to regain the life he once enjoyed before he made the streets of the Corporate Area his home.

For the past seven years, McIntosh, who claimed to have been forced out of his house, has been sleeping on cardboard and begging passers-by for food. His current address is under a tarpaulin in front the headquarters of the island's military base, the Jamaica Defence Force, on Camp Road.

"More time me affi beg a juice or water, or me beg the money and me get it ," he told THE STAR.

Hope may be restored for the 30-year-old as Delroy Williams, Mayor of Kingston, shared that a transitional housing facility, located on King Street, will be opened for the city's homeless later this month.

Williams said that the first phase may see 40 individuals being admitted then in the second phase, a total of 100 people will be accommodated.

The facility, to be operated and managed by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), will be the first of its kind in Jamaica. It will offer temporary care to members of the homeless population. Through treatment and intervention provided, persons will be reintegrated into the society.

Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, told THE STAR that he was excited about the opening of the facility.

"I am happy and I am just waiting on the mayor," said McKenzie, while appealing to Jamaicans to do their part to assist the elderly.

"We have a comprehensive programme that we would be rolling out across the country for the homeless population. We continue to provide meals for them, we continue to provide medical services and clothes for them. So what I would want to do is call on all Jamaicans to join us in the fight, to ensure that we do as much as possible," he urged.

McKenzie told the news team that the KSAMC has already engaged some members of the homeless population with employment as they have been tasked with cleaning various corridors in the downtown business district.

There are an estimated 2,000 homeless people in Jamaica, around 500 of them being in the downtown Kingston area. McIntosh longs for the day when he is no longer counted among the homeless. Until that time comes, he hopes to secure a space in the transitional housing facility.

"Me wouldn't mind go down to the shelter weh me can sleep good a night time," he told THE STAR.

"Before me get homeless, me used to sell water. Me was a vendor sometime. It would a good fi go to the shelter, yes, but if me fi get help right now, me would a sell back the water same way," he said.