Martinez to enforce homeless move-along policy

HOMELESS people who sleep on the ground floor of the Riverside Plaza car park in Port of Spain now have to relocate to an upper floor or find somewhere else to bathe and sleep.

The Centre for So­cial­ly-Dis­placed Peo­ple (CS­DP) occupies higher floors.

Port of Spain mayor Joel Martinez, speaking with Newsday on Monday, confirmed that gates will be put up to prevent people from gathering on the ground floor.

He said they are welcome to register at the CSDP, but the ground floor, which he compared to a drug den, needs to be cleaned.

"We are moving whoever is under there and whatever is under there to ensure the area is sanitised to be able to bring the workers in to install the grill gates."

Martinez said he had given orders for wrk to start, but was unsure whether it had begun. Materials needed for the job were bought last week, he added.

A number of NGOs and people who regularly feed the homeless in Port of Spain will soon be prohibited from doing so.

"The 200-odd people who get food from the NGOs, they are not going to be given food randomly on the streets any more.

"I am building grill gates so that the people who feed the homeless on the streets can now go there, at the homeless shelter, to do it.

"We are creating an area at the homeless centre where those who want to get food can go upstairs to be registered."

He said people who went ther could also take a shower, clean up and be provied with a mattress or a bed.

Once the work at the centre is completed, Martinez said, police will start enforce a move-along policy to discourage the homeless from sleeping on the city pavements.

"We want to invite them to the centre where they can be evaluated and be given a proper meal and other opportunities," he said. "We are not moving them from the streets of Port of Spain."

On Monday Newsday visited the car park, where at least two dozen people were seen sleeping or walking about on the bottom floor. None of the people interviewed there was aware of the plan.

Asked if they would welcome it, one replied: "I have no problem going upstairs. I have a problem with the management and the (lack of) accountability."

A number of people said there were issues of victimisation and a lack of freedom of movement.

"The gates are closed by 11 pm, so if you reach after that, you can't get in," one person said.

Speaking on alleged victimisation, he gave an example of a woman who was removed from the centre because of what she was wearing.

Newsday spoke briefly with CSDP manager Roger Wat­son, who said people on the groundfloor are not being removed yet and that the painters and other workmen were working around the homeless there.

"They (workmen) have been here for two-three months. I don't know what's the problem," said Watson, who took no further questions.