Port of Spain mayor on homeless shelter squabble: We're all on the same team

Port of Spain Mayor Joel Martinez said he is going to mediation with the Homeless Assistance Office for a resolution on the opening of a gated homeless shelter in Riverside Plaza carpark.

Last week Minister of Social Development and Family Services Donna Cox handed him the keys to the gated shelter on the ground floor of the Centre for Socially Displaced Persons at the Riverside Plaza carpark.

Martinez was expected to give the keys to Anthony Salloum, founder of the Homeless Assistance Office.

But he did not, saying he would only do so if Salloum dropped the appeal of a 2016 court case. A homeless man challenged the decision of mayor Raymond Tim Kee to lock the gates of Tamarind Square to keep out homeless people. He lost, but appealed, with support from Salloum's NGO.

Since the mayor's refusal to give Salloum the keys, Cox has said she will intervene next week.

Speaking with Newsday after the city corporation's statutory meeting on Friday, Martinez said there was a mediation session between the corporation and the Homeless Assistance office on Friday afternoon and was hopeful the situation would be resolved.

He also noted there were different stakeholders dealing with the issue of homeless in the city, but wanted to assure the public they all had the same objective in mind.

He said while he respected Salloum for his dedication to helping the homeless, he maintained the city corporation had no legal authority to remove them from the streets.

"Mr Salloum is indicating that we need to do our part to resolve the situation and we don't have any locus standi in it. The thing is, you can't tag that to us and that's where the issue is. I'm doing this from a humanitarian approach and not out of a statutory one. So the Port of Spain Corporation has no jurisdiction whatsoever on it.

"What we are trying to do is assist as best as we could. So at the end of the day we are all on the same team trying to achieve it. It's just we are taking a different road, and that's how I see it."

Martinez said the objective of the city corporation has been to assist NGOs however it can and was optimistic that mediation would be productive.