EXPERIENCING two years of homelessness has been no easy feat for 39-year-old Sherdan Carr who constantly worries about being attacked while sleeping on the streets of the country’s capital city at nights.

On New Year’s Day Carr told the Jamaica Observer that when he manages to get a good night’s rest, it is usually while sleeping on the roof of someone’s house because he dreads being harmed by unscrupulous people — including children — who roam the downtown Kingston streets nightly.

But Carr still believes all is not lost, and that opportunities lie ahead for him to make a comeback.

What he wants is for the relevant authorities to implement better systems to protect the homeless population, which is estimated to be more than 3,000 individuals. He also wants the public to show compassion towards those who are sleeping rough. According to Carr, many homeless people would go to shelters and stay off the streets if the conditions in those facilities were better.

The young man said when people go into the shelters they are sometimes robbed of their belongings.

“Being homeless is very rough. I have to sleep on rooftops — I have to climb buildings and go up there to sleep. If you lay down anywhere other than a rooftop there is going to be somebody who wants to drop a stone in your head. Before Christmas, about a week before, 10 of us were across the road and some young guys…came and used stones to burst a Rastaman’s head while he was sleeping.

“It is very detrimental, so to protect our life we sometimes have to hide in a tree or on a rooftop. Some of them go down on the mall, near the police headquarters, go sleep. Anyhow you lay down certain place, by the following morning people will come and see a stone in your head.

“There is one old man who had two cuts under his throat; he told me that somebody robbed him and cut his throat. Last night [last Wednesday night], my heart wouldn’t allow me to leave him on the street, so I directly carried him up to where I sleep now and that is where he is,” Carr said, adding that the police recently picked up the body of a homeless man whose head had been bashed in with a rock.

Carr explained that for those who can’t climb trees or go atop roofs, they have to sleep on shifts, with someone keeping watch while others rest.

“I would really like some of the people who are in the relevant positions, who can bring some help towards this, to really put out the best effort to see what they can do. They said they have night shelters where they said we can go but in the night shelters it is even worse than out on the street. You might get something to eat once or twice for the day, and it depends. Sometimes, like a holiday like this, some of the workers dem nuh come work so people have to come on the streets come catch food or people will drop by and give you some food or suh. You will be in there and your same colleagues dem a steal from you when they should be protecting you. Instead of you going up in life, you drop back down,” said Carr.

Teleta Allen, who has spent a lot of time on the streets but insists she is “not really homeless”, agreed that street people face threats from all angles, especially at night-time.

“It’s true. They drop stones in people head for fun,” she said.

Over the years there have been numerous reports of abuses against the homeless, including murders. Between January 2021 and April of 2023, 12 homeless people were shot, wounded with machetes or knives, or set on fire.

Eight of the incidents took place in Kingston, one in St Ann, one in St Mary, and two in Portland. Only one of the victims survived.

In October last year, state minister in the Ministry of Local Government and Community, Delroy Williams said there had been a significant reduction in reports of abuse against the homeless.

He made the disclosure while delivering remarks at the Clarendon Municipal Corporation’s observance of World Homeless Day, held at the old police station grounds in May Pen, Clarendon, on October 10.

“There are a lot of our citizens who abuse homeless persons, and we have forever been appealing to our citizens to desist from the practice… and I believe that over the years we have [made gains in addressing] the issue,” Williams said.