Westmoreland — The Westmoreland Parish Council has allocated $1 million for the refurbishing of a building to house the town’s street people who now roam the town of Savanna-la-Mar.

The original plan was for the Council funds to be matched by funding from the Westmoreland Association of Street People (WASP), but that organisation is having problems raising the funds.

“The site is urgently needed. We do not have much money in the account at this time, but we are committed to the initiative,” said WASP president, Barbara Stewart. “We have manpower, but we do not have the funding,” she said.

She added that their efforts to raise additional funds had floundered also because of the present economic climate brought on by the September 11 attack on the US. But she said they had not abandoned the plan, and appealed to members of the public to contribute funds to the organisation’s NCB account # 612798257.

But WASP’s inability to come up with its share of the funds has not stalled the project. The Council’s secretary manager, Patricia Sinclair-Stair, recently advised the local government body to go ahead with the project.

And in the meantime, councillor Bernard Vanriel has proposed that a law be enacted to compel known relatives of street people to accept the responsibility of taking care of those that are mentally challenged. But, charging that the Council has a responsibility to care for these individuals, mayor Ralph Anglin opposed Vanriel’s proposal.

The mayor also maintained that the parish was behind in taking care of its street people and vowed to address the problem.