WITH an October edict from local authorities still hanging over the heads of the homeless who have taken refuge at Justice Square on King Street in downtown Kingston, some individuals who frequent the space say plans to attach them to shelters in the area will fail.

In mid-October, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie, backed by Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby, told dozens of homeless individuals that they would no longer be allowed to loiter in those precincts.

But individuals with whom the Jamaica Observer spoke last Friday said that while those pronouncements have sent some of the homeless into hiding, the authorities will reap no success unless they address fundamental issues.

McKenzie, while making it clear in October that there was no intention to use “brute force” against the homeless or “take them anywhere and park them”, said the authorities are forced to take action as some of the homeless individuals have not only littered Justice Square but have taken to setting fire to the facilities there. The local government minister, who was addressing the individuals during a breakfast meeting at Marie Atkins Shelter on Hanover Street in downtown Kingston, said having collected the data of the individuals who frequent the space, the authorities “are going to start to make the arrangements to get you into the shelters”.

“Desmond just can’t say him a guh tek up everybody, him can’t tek up who live somewhere. Him not doing nutten fi di homeless people dem, him only a talk. Yuh have to have somewhere to put them…them love the street, dem nah go in deh [shelter],” Marcia Francis, who said she is not homeless but spends many of her days in the area, told the Sunday Observer.

“Yuh have to treat dem good so that dem stay in; handle dem [good]. Yuh have dis man round there, when dem go round there to bathe, [him] run dem out,” Francis said emphatically.

“Hallelujah, a true she a talk! Mighty God,” one elderly man who gave his name as Buchanan exclaimed.

“Him run dem out and then when dem go round there to get di food, him don’t want them to come in, him want them fi [stay] outside. So when yuh see them come outta road, a nuh say dem nuh have nowhere, but poor ting dem. When them go round deh, them [take] advantage [of] them; them don’t deal wid dem good,” Francis told the Sunday Observer.

“Look how di girl a talk di ting dem,” her elderly counterpart interjected.

Continuing, Francis said she has also been subjected to that hostility from individuals manning the shelter.

“Mi don’t live on the street, but when I came to go round there, [two shelter workers] want to make argument with me. If them did a treat them good, they would stay in there.

“Wah day I saw one and one say to me, ‘When yuh go down [Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC)], tell them say they don’t treat we good in the home why we haffi come out.’ Me is a May woman, me just talk di truth…treat them good, them is a human being,” she said indignantly.

“When yuh put dem a di home now, yuh haffi a show attendance. Dem come like a baby to yuh. All him [pointing to a homeless 28-year-old man], I know him long time, and if dem did a treat him good him would a in there… Them coming out cause dem a nuh idiot, them have sense, not because them is homeless, treat dem good,” she insisted.

According to Francis, the homeless — the majority of whom were not in sight when the Sunday Observer visited on Friday — were keeping a low profile while they waited to see how the plans of the local authorities would be put into action.

“Them deh ya, but them hide. All mi woulda like unnu fi tek har [one particular homeless woman] off the streets; every man [sexually assault] har,” she alleged.

Buchanan, given his turn to tell his story, said he was not homeless but frequented Justice Square because his home is hostile.

“Good morning, Observer, I live somewhere, but it did burn down, and I go back there and pick up my pieces, but the fight what I am getting from some young family members have mi frustrated that I think about take my own life, but I rebuke it…I rebuke it in the name of the Almighty God,” he said.

“I love Jamaica, and I love my family, but they are not treating me right. One give mi 18 stitches right here so, and right now one of them almost cut my throat the other day just true a family place. None a wi nah go nowhere with no place, yuh ever see somebody pass away yet and go with a place inna di casket? We a Jamaican, we suppose to live good, no care where you come from,” he preached.

In the meantime, he said Justice Square is his place of refuge because of his “food problem”.

“Here so mi get my food. I don’t go round [Poor Relief] no more, just true one big fat man, him gwaan like a him name Andrew Holness.

“Down here usually full of homeless, and couple weeks now I really don’t see them. I don’t know [where they are], but you have some people who don’t really work with the Government, and they privately pass and give them food,” he said, in explaining the number of homeless individuals seen last Friday.

One 28-year-old man seen reclining under a tree on the pavement said he has called Justice Square home for years, after losing his lodging at the KSAMC’s Hanover Street location in the area.

“Due to the corona [COVID-19 pandemic] mi did come outta di shelter because dem a say who want to stay, stay, so mi did end up follow company and come out. Mi never did stay because dem a seh wi ago lock down for a while,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The man, who said he’s a high school graduate, said he had worked for a while with the motor vehicle impound facility at the corner of Church and Barry streets briefly, but is now in search of a job.

Indicating that he is aware of the municipality’s plans for people like himself to vacate Justice Square and attach themselves to a shelter facility, he said he has his doubts about finding refuge.

“Mi did tek di street fi it and them never let mi in back because them a say mi nuh really want nowhere [to stay], enuh,” he explained.

Asked if he would be willing to return to a shelter, he said, “Yeah, mi would a willing fi stay back.”

He said, too, that Justice Square is his usual haunt because “a food wi wait pon here from people who come to give out to certain people”.

For years, Justice Square — which houses the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions — has been a refuge for dozens of homeless people, some of whom are mentally challenged and roam at will in different stages of undress. They have been blamed for the unsanitary state of the area and at least two fires.

The move to relocate the homeless from Justice Square comes after repeated calls from the judiciary, the latest during the official opening ceremony for the Michaelmas Term for the Appeal Court at the end of September.

Local Government Minister McKenzie also, last month, revealed that the 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.

Marcia Francis, who says she is not homeless, advocates for better treatment of the homeless by shelter officials while explaining their preference for Justice Square on King Street in downtown Kingston last Friday. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)