Charities heeding the call to direct homeless feeding programmes through shelters

Acting Inspector of Poor at the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation, Donna-Gaye Brady, says the Poor Relief Department has been receiving numerous calls from individuals and organisations seeking to streamline their homeless feeding programmes by routing them through shelters.

Brady gave the update on Saturday while speaking at a feeding event organised by Nickiesha Flash at the Marie Atkins Night Shelter, adding that the department welcomes the offers and is working to coordinate partners to ensure consistent support for shelter residents.

Last week, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie disclosed that homeless persons reject and improperly dispose of food given to them by strangers 90 per cent of the time.

McKenzie, while making an impassioned plea for the homeless to work with the authorities and vacate areas such as Justice Square, urged the homeless to make good use of the multiple meals per day provided at the drop in centres and avoid meals not fit for consumption.

Mayor of Kingston Andrew Swaby said for the better part of a year the municipality has communicated that persons seeking to help with feeding the homeless should contact the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) to ensure the food shared is fit for consumption.

“We actually camp out at Ward Theatre or Justice Square on Sundays just to encourage them to make contact with us and they consistently don't make contact with us. Persons who probably have a dance and have leftover manish water and it gets sour and they carry it and come give it to the persons, those are the persons who we are talking about,” Swaby said.

Brady said the group which organised Saturday's feeding of persons at the Marie Atkins Night Shelter adhered to the call and the activity went smoothly.

"We are happy to see that a group has decided to comply and adhere to this call. So they came in, they were able to feed the homeless population and feed some residents in the shelter and we truly appreciate the gesture," Brady said.

"We would have received a number of calls and we appreciate it," she said, noting that the aid from charities allows the Poor Relief Department to redirect some of its funding to other critical needs like healthcare for the homeless.

"So we are asking persons to come in, be a part of the process...Feeding on the streets contributes to garbage and the entire littering of downtown Kingston, which is something we are trying to move away from at the KSAMC.

Flash, who organised Saturday's activity to celebrate her birthday, encouraged others to join in feeding of the poor and homeless.

She said the feeling of giving back was "indescribable" adding, "I want more people to come on board to get the experience".

The national homeless survey, the third of its kind, is expected to be published soon.

It was conducted from October 6-10 across all parishes by the ministry of local government, through the board of Supervision and aims to generate critical data to inform future policies and services for individuals experiencing homelessness across Jamaica.

Some 1,938 individuals were reported as having experienced homelessness across Jamaica in 2017.

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