Street dweller forms homeless Association

For the past five years, Frank Deonarine, 54, has lived on the streets of San Fernando. He slept on many a concrete pavement, bracing rain and wind.

When Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Kazim Hosein was elected the city’s mayor in 2013, Deonarine asked him for a pair of steel-tipped boots.

He wanted to wear the boots for a job he had found and Hosein obliged. A welder and fabricator by trade, Deonarine has worked and earned a living, but he continued to make the streets his home. He has forged friendship with many homeless people like himself. After years of living on the streets, Deonarine has formed an association which he calls, “The Homeless Association”. And he is its president.

Yesterday, Deonarine sat at the head table with Hosein who visited the San Fernando Centre for Displaced Persons on Kings Wharf to share a meal with the homeless. Establishing the centre was the brainchild of Hosein who had vowed when he was mayor to assist the homeless to get off the streets of San Fernando. When he assumed office as a minister, Hosein continued to rally for the shelter to be opened on Kings Wharf. From today, the homeless in and around San Fernando can visit the centre for a hot meal and shower.

Hosein and Social Development Minister Cherrie-Ann Crichlow Cockburn addressed the homeless yesterday before they sat for lunch. Deonarine, 54, told the Newsday that he was very happy with the initiative. Over 80 homeless people attended the all-day event where they were treated to manicures and pedicures. They were also tested for high blood pressure and diabetes. Clothing and survival kits were also handed to them.

Members of the Revival of Ummah volunteer group and the San Fernando Volunteer Network distributed the meals, clothing and other items. Deonarine said, “I am very thankful for this place and to talk with other people this morning. They were all excited to come here. We know this place was suppose to open a while now but it was shut down for a little while. We are glad to see it running now.”

Deonarine said that the objective of his association is to petition the authorities to assist homeless people with their various drug addictions and health problems. Deonarine said, “There are plenty fellas who drink bay-rum every day or they drinking rum or smoking coke. It does lick them up. I think the government should come on the streets to see who suffering from addiction, take them and treat them for it. Plenty of them don’t listen to me when I talk and it have some does get sick, go in the hospital and then run away and do the same thing again. We need more help for these people.”

Asked about his role as head of the association, Deonarine explained, “I does try to look out for everybody on the street. When you living outside there there is victimization, stress, plus all the physical things that could happen. So we have to stick together, cause if you can’t handle the streets you will go down hard outside there.”

Deonarine said he began living on the streets after his parents’ home burnt to the ground in 2013. He said, “I had gone to Tobago and when I was there I get a call that the house burn down. It was leased land so the people didn’t want me to build back anything and I had nowhere else to go and I just started staying on the streets. I sleeping on the streets but I does get jobs, rent the tools and go and make a day work whenever I get it. Is not like I just waiting there and I lazy.”