Port of Spain corporation, Salloum make peace over homeless shelter

Almost a year after the ground floor at the Riverside Plaza carpark, Port of Spain was handed over to the corporation to get the socially displaced off the streets, it is one step closer to being open.

This came after Port of Spain mayor Joel Martinez said the parties have mediated and agreed to work together.

The facility remained closed as Anthony Salloum, founder of the NGO Homeless Assistance Office, and Martinez could not find common ground.

But in a statutory council meeting on Friday Martinez said, "We have drawn plans and agreed to do various things and the parties come together to be able to manage and eradicate homelessness in Port of Spain."

Next Friday will be the last virtual mediation session. When contacted Salloum told Newsday discussions are going well and he is ready to move forward.

When the facility was identified as a temporary centre to get the homeless off the streets, Salloum asked for part of it to open an office to assist displaced people.

Two weeks after Minister of Social Development and Family Services Donna Cox handed over the facility to the corporation, Salloum clashed with Martinez after the mayor told Newsday on May 27 he would only hand over the keys if Salloum and a homeless man, Hugh Bernard, dropped an ongoing court appeal against the corporation.

Cox intervened andMartinez eventually handed over the key but the facility remained closed.

The discord between the men began six years after the matter was brought before the court. Bernard, a socially displaced man, went to court, with Salloum as a witness after former mayor Raymond Tim Kee and members of the corporation decide to instal padlocks on the gates around Tamarind Square, east Independence Square, to keep out the homeless.

During cross-examination, the mayor and corporation claimed the presence of homeless people made the square unsanitary and impassable to the public.

The corporation denied deciding to lock all the gates to the square.

Bernard claimed there was no civilised alternative to the square, and conditions at the Socially Displaced Centre, downtown Port of Spain, were inhumane and unsafe.

The judgment, delivered by Justice Eleanor J Donaldson-Honeywell in October 2017, dismissed Bernard’s claim that his right to “life, liberty, security of the person and enjoyment of the property and the right not to be deprived thereof, except by due process of law,” and to freedom of movement was infringed by the corporation.

Bernard subsequently appealed. Instead of going through with the appeal, the court suggested mediation between the parties.