Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness Expands 24-Hour Shelter Operations, Focuses on Reintegrating Clients

As the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) prepares its shelter at Spry Street, The City to become a 24-hour operation, it will be focusing on reintegrating clients back into society “in a meaningful way”.

It also wants to expand its work throughout the region.

President Kemar Saffrey gave this indication in a statement on Wednesday, a day before the BAEH’s 14th anniversary.

Just over a month ago, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey announced that the government will be pumping $252 000 into BAEH’s operations to transition its 90-bed shelter to a 24-hour facility from October 1.

While that transition has not yet happened, Saffrey said the move to a 24-hour shelter means that clients would no longer have to leave the facility at 7 a.m. but could stay throughout the day and have access to meals and meaningful services that will see them being rehabilitated and reintegrated back into mainstream society.

“The move to a 24-hour shelter speaks volumes. Our charity previously had a 6 p.m. intake, and homeless persons would have to leave by 7 a.m., so having a shelter open for 24 hours now means that we facilitate people longer. They don’t have to leave the shelter, and they can take part in various programmes and activities and have access to various benefits,” Saffrey said.

“We don’t just want to have a 24-hour shelter, and that is it. We want to focus on reintegrating and rehabilitating people back into mainstream society in a meaningful way because a lot of people over the years would have come and expressed a willingness to get into our programmes, but oftentimes, when they go back into society, they are idle, their minds are idle, and then they end back up doing the very same thing that they were trying to come off of.

“So, this is one aspect we would like to turn our attention to, even with the move to 24 hours. We want to limit the amount of people on the streets, especially within Bridgetown. We want to see people utilising the shelter rather than utilising buildings in and around Bridgetown,” Saffrey said.

Minister Humphrey had said the decision to partner with the registered charity, which already receives a subvention from the government, was necessary in light of the growing number of homeless people in Bridgetown.

Saffrey said that as his organisation looks towards the future, as it relates to homelessness, the focus is on policies that can help drive the country forward.

He said some proposals have been put forward to the government in relation to emergency housing, housing solutions, the establishment of the National Task Force on Homelessness and assistance, in terms of policy, that can help people get off the street faster and back into mainstream society.

Saffrey also indicated that he is setting his sights on expanding the work of the organisation throughout the Caribbean.

The BAEH head said his organisation had come a long way since being established on October 19 2009, from having an office on Fontabelle, then Bay Street and Tudor Street, before moving to its present home at Spry Street.

“For us, it has been remarkable because on the ten-year anniversary, we would have set out to accomplish what we had always wanted to do, which was to have a shelter for the homeless here in Spry Street and having a 90-bed facility, which is and has been meaningfully supporting homeless people in Barbados,” he said.

Saffrey has encouraged Barbadians to support the organisation’s work by contributing to the BAEH’s ongoing iPledge Campaign towards the purchasing of the building in Spry Street. (AH)