Soldiers help build homeless shelter

Soldiers helped the Ministry of Social Development build a homeless shelter in Port of Spain. The ministry shared this information in a press release on Wednesday.

It said that with the most recent measure of extended stay at home for all non-essential workers, the country's homeless population needed a facility. On March 4, a team started constructing a temporary facility on the ground level at Riverside Carpark, at the Centre for Displaced Persons.

This facility is expected to provide temporary shelter for street dwellers and will be complete this week. The release said people who need to use the shelter will undergo a process of admission to the facility. It said the shelter will provide beneficiaries with cots to sleep on, bathroom facilities, a dining/recreation facility and three meals daily.

Cots will be laid on metal frames on the existing roadway for ease of maintenance and a female dormitory will be separate from the male dormitory, enclosed using sheets of ply board, and secured. The male dormitory, and dining/recreation area will remain open and running water will be provided for washing hands, bathing and personal hygiene.

A security fence is also to be erected to prevent illegal/unauthorized entry to the stairs of the centre. The release noted that the shelter will also accommodate people according to social distancing stipulations and guidelines and proper inspections will be undertaken by the Public Health Department to ensure proper sanitation and living conditions are maintained.