Centre for socially-displaced a waste of money

THE EDITOR: What a waste of tax payers' dollars.

Imagine the Minister wants to take $55 million-plus of tax payers' money to build a centre to house street dwellers. Yes it is something good and I am not against finding somewhere to place these people, but there are too many empty, derelict buildings all over Port of Spain, and other parts of the country.

There is no need to spend $55m for a new centre. These empty buildings can easily be converted or outfitted to accommodate these people, surely at a fraction of the $55m, for the centre.

Or, why not sell some of those empty buildings and the funds can be used to assist the socially-displaced in our society instead of having them just wasting away and deteriorating.

It seems Government does not know how to fix things when they are broken and prefer to leave then to deteriorate completely. There are lots of empty building including on Wrightson Road, so why not do something with them instead of spend that kind of money to erect a new building?

Do you know that one of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffet, has been living in the same house he bought back in 1958? And he is a billionaire. Do you all know what he did? He renovated the house, he did not break it down.

This $55m can be used to tackle other pressing matters in our country. In no way am I saying the issue of the socially-displaced, is not an important one. But there are many unused buildings which can be utilised to help them.

This wastage can also be seen in our fleet of buses. Instead of properly maintaining and refurbishing them, one can see several buses lying derelict and rusting at City Gate. Government it seems, is happy to spend millions to purchase new buses.

Surely it won't cost the same to refurbish our buses as it would to purchase and import new ones. What a waste of money!

There are so many pressing issues in our country where our scarce dollars can go towards.

What about the technical/vocation school off the Eastern Main Road in Laventille, that has been closed down for years, why not refurbish it with some of the $55m. Get it back up and functioning so we can deal with our delinquent youths before they fall into the gangs.

For heaven's sake, let good sense prevail when it comes to the tax payers' money.

MODICIA MARTIN

Via e-mail