MONTEGO BAY, St James

Mayor of Montego Bay and chairman of the St James Parish Council, Noel Donaldson, is shocked at reports that street people in this resort city are being removed from the streets as the country prepares for Cricket World Cup 2007.

“I wish to state emphatically that the St James Parish Council is not, under my leadership, engaged in such inhumane and abominable conduct,” Donaldson told the Observer West yesterday. “We have checked with the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI) and they likewise have no information in support of the reports,” added the mayor.

Reports are that in recent days there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of street persons that usually roam Montego Bay’s streets – especially the business district.

Additionally, several persons have made calls to “call in” programmes alleging that street people in the tourist resort were being rounded up and carted away.

Up to the end of last month there were an estimated 110 street persons in Montego Bay.

Yesterday, the parish council chairman told the Observer West that while he is not aware if the local authority is being accused of committing the reportedly inhumane act, he was very disturbed at the reports.

He said over the past three years the St James Parish Council, in conjunction with CUMI, the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) and the Cornwall Regional Hospital, have worked assiduously to create a model treatment and outreach rehabilitation programme for the city’s street persons.

“Consequently, we would never countenance any action that would seek to destroy our hard work in this area,” the mayor stressed.

On July 15, 1999, in an event which came to be known as the Montego Bay street people scandal, some 30 of that city’s homeless and mentally ill were transported before daybreak to a mudlake in St Elizabeth and abandoned there.

Less than three years later, a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for the city’s street people was set up by the St James Parish Council in conjunction with a number of stakeholders.

The first stage of the rehabilitation is the care centre located along Lawrence Lane in the city. There, the homeless are given the opportunity to get cleaned up, fed and counselled.

Those who require medication but who do not wish to make a hospital visit may be given medication. Otherwise, they are sent to the Cornwall Regional Hospital for assessment.

After that, a determination is made as to whether they have families willing and able to assume responsibility for their care. Until then, they are housed at the 36-bed night shelter at Albion called Refuge of Hope while they undertake further rehabilitation with CUMI.

At the same time, there are a number of homeless men in the programme who have benefited from the job training component of the programme. Those persons are employed to the NSWMA, who are also partners in the programme.