MONTEGO Bay, St James

Faced with a growing number of homeless and mentally ill persons on the streets of Montego Bay, Inspector of Poor for St James, Jeremiah Dehaney, is pleading for financial assistance in order to expand the Montego Bay Street People Programme.

Following last week's Observer West exclusive, which highlighted the plight of the city's street people, Dehaney, who oversees the operations of the programme's Refuge of Hope night shelter located in Albion and the Care Centre in downtown Montego Bay, said urgent help was needed to expand the night shelter and establish a drug detox unit.

"We are depending on all concerned persons who have an interest in the state of homeless people in Montego Bay," pleaded Dehaney. "It's not just an individual problem its everybody's business," he insisted.

He noted that the major concern right now was the establishment of the drug detox unit to treat the overwhelming numbers of drug addicts on the streets of the second city, accounting for the majority's of the tourist resort's homeless.

These addicts are now presently housed and cared for under the same facilities used to care for the mentally ill and this presents the city authorities with overwhelming challenges.
"It's a mammoth task," admitted Dehaney. He noted however, that they had the full backing of the psychiatric department at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, which is integral to the programme.

Dehaney explains that the expansion of the night shelter was just as important as the establishment of the detox unit. This he said would allow them to take in more numbers of the city's homeless, who cannot now be accommodated at the shelter, which presently house 33 homeless and mentally ill persons.

Dehaney said funding had been partially identified for the expansion of the shelter, while they had tentatively identified a building which would be ideal to establish the detox unit.
He noted that the staff at the St James Parish Council, which administers the Street People Programme, continued to do what was sometimes a very risky job due to the volatility of the persons they served, with the resources they had at their disposal.

"We continue to do the work," said Dehaney praising the staff, which he said continue to work diligently given the many challenges.

In fact, so dedicated is he to the cause of the homeless that on returning from his 2005 visit to Atlanta on a street people study/tour programme he disguised himself as a street person and ventured out on the on the street of the city.
Here he said he was able to observe first hand the challenges facing the homeless and to better understand them and see how they operate.

This was a task he had also done in Atlanta. He has continually sought to educate himself on the homeless and in March of this year went to Jacksonville Florida for a weeklong programme at the City Rescue Mission for homeless.

"The work is there to be done," says Dehaney. "It might seem overwhelming but we have to do it," he added. "You cannot erase the problem of homeless people, you can only minimise it."

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