DESMOND McKenzie says the local government ministry has embarked on a survey to gather information on the state of homelessness across Jamaica and will be building 14 new shelters islandwide to accommodate people who have been sleeping rough.

McKenzie, the minister of local government, shared the information last Friday at St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston as the country observed World Homeless Day.

“This survey will give us an opportunity, when it is done, to plan adequately to meet the demands of the homeless population here in Jamaica,” McKenzie said.

“The Ministry of Local Government will be working closely with the National Housing Trust; we are going to be erecting 14 major shelters in every parish in Jamaica in the new financial year to deal with the issue of the homeless population,” said.

At the same time he argued that while the State can build more shelters, the long-term solution is, “to build a culture of personal responsibility where people take responsibility for their loved ones and don’t leave them in the streets for Government and others to struggle with their concerns”.

“A lot of the people on the streets have good families, steady homes, but because circumstances don’t allow the families to accept and appreciate them, they turn them out and put them on the streets. The Government is going to be moving effectively to take action against those who continue to abandon their families and leave them at the mercy of others,” he said.

“In our public hospitals there are more than 500 cases where people take their relatives to the hospital and abandon them in the hospital. It can’t be. You have families who leave their loved ones at the hospital while they go on a cruise,” the minister said, and rapped on the knuckles the people who dish out such treatment to their relatives.

“What is sad about it is that when they die they give them the biggest funeral, and when they are alive, nobody remembers them,” he said.

McKenzie shared that over the last few years he has seen a number of cases of people who were living in shelters being reunited with their families.

“Many of them have gained meaningful employment and are back in society. We are not just holding those persons there in the shelters; we are trying to rehabilitate them and put them back out into the public space,” he said.

“I know mental health is a major problem, and it is something that we must realise and talk about as a country. Last year we graduated some 32 psychiatric assistants; in the next financial year we are going to be turning out another batch of 38. We are training persons to work to be efficient to assist with the problems we face as a country,” he added.

He also said that additional space to fit 100 more beds is being created at the shelter named in his honour — the Desmond McKenzie Transitional Centre on King Street in downtown Kingston — pointing out that the Government is “making the kind of investment that is required”, to help people in need.

McKenzie’s appeal regarding the abandonment of family members was echoed by mayor of Kingston Andrew Swaby who pointed to a recent case of someone who dropped off a relative at the gate of a shelter and then drove off.

“They didn’t have the decency to come inside at 65 Hanover Street and say they can’t take care of their loved one. They just dropped the person at the gate. I was told that within an hour or two another family member came in and picked up the person. It is clear that that family is not talking to each other,” Swaby said.

“I am appealing to family members not to just leave them on the road. Take them in, guide them, and help them to get the proper treatment… It is their duty to take care of their family. As a child your mother took care of you and now that your mother is at a stage where she can’t help herself you have a duty to take care of your mother. Every day I see these things I wish my mother was alive that I could continue to show her the love and treat her the way she treated me. We were poor, but nobody would know that because I got the best of love and care from her,” the mayor said.

Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie addressing the issue of homelessness at St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston last Friday, World Homeless Day. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)