Sick persons kicked out by relatives, landlords among Kingston’s homeless
Published:Monday | January 6, 2020 | 12:12 AMChristopher Serju/Gleaner Writer
Pamela Levy was among the senior citizens attending the annual treat hosted by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Council (KSAMC) at the St William Grant Park Downtown Kingston on New Year’s Day who seemed out of place. Well spoken, with a constant smile in place and neatly attired in clean clothing, assembled with an obvious sense of fashion, her stylish yellow jacket all combined to make her a misfit.
A regular at the Marie Atkins Night Shelter operated by the Poor Relief Department of the KSAMC at 65 Hanover Street in downtown Kingston over the last five months, she was thankful for the treat.
“It makes a big difference,” she told The Gleaner before going to share the story of how she slipped from being a resident of Meadowbrook, a Corporate Area suburb, to being homeless.
Levy explained that she was living with relatives and contributing $10,000 monthly towards housing rental when she got ill and fell on hard times.
“I get sick and couldn’t help myself, and my relatives put me out, and somebody said I must go to Poor Relief and it better than out a street. Poor Relief people them all right,” she said, with a smile.
Levy was among the 600 homeless persons feted by the KSAMC at the annual event, where the meal of stewed chicken with dumplings, yams, bananas and calalloo was served with a choice of bottled drink or bag juice. The food containers were made from one of the alternatives to styrofoam, which Mayor Delroy Williams boasted the KSAMC had started using from last year.
Councillor for the Rae Town division, Rosalie Hamilton, explained that many of the persons they cater to as homeless are, in fact, people who defy the stereotype of a streetperson – dirty and ungroomed. Many of the persons catered to at the Marie Atkins Night Shelter, which provides a meal and safe place to sleep at night, like Levy, have become permanent residents.
“One of the things that need to be highlighted is that the situation of some these homeless people is that they are not ill or anything, so what the KSAMC is trying to do is personal interventions to get them back on a solid footing,” Hamilton said.
Very often, what happens is that a person becomes ill and is hospitalised for an extended period and their landlord decides that he/she cannot hold the apartment any longer, since no rent is being paid. With hospital bills still outstanding and prescriptions to fill these persons are thrown out into the streets, they end up shelters.
“If you sit and talk to some of these persons about the circumstances of how they became homeless, the unwillingness of relatives and friends, especially children, to support them in their time of need, it is sad, ridiculous, terrible. No care, no love.”
The KSAMC, however, has started to compile a database of the homeless people who come through the night shelter with the aim of matching their skill sets with available jobs. It is something they are looking to ramp up with support from the private and public sectors.
“We know basically what their skills are because some would tell us what they can do and they ask us to help them get jobs, and some would come for training and we would route them to the necessary training options,” said Hamilton.
Among the gains Mayor Williams was happy to speak about was the reduction in reports of abuse of street people in recent times.