Number of Trinidad street dwellers to be revealed soon

THE Ministry of Social Development and Family Services has completed a head count of homeless people in Trinidad.The numbers will be revealed soon, executive director of the ministry’s social displacement unit Loraine Reyes-Borel told Newsday on Wednesday. The objective, she said, is to develop programmes and policies to assist with rehabilitating the homeless.

"It gives a sense of how to manage street dwelling.

"We have found that street dwellers migrate, but cannot say that there has been an increase. We do not seek to determine their reason for being there; that is done through another initiative,” Reyes-Borel said.The ministry began the project by doing a head count of the number of people – both male and female – who live on the streets.Reyes-Borel said the rehabilitation programmes will give street dwellers access to resources, such as social welfare grants.A data document is being compiled for the permanent secretary for review, she added, after which the statistics will be publicised.The ministry usually does national head count of the homeless between September and October annually between 10 pm and 5 am. The ministry assumes if someone is on the street during these hours in a particular physical condition, he or she is a street dweller.The count started on October 8 with the deployment of two teams along the East-West Corridor. They visited streets in Sangre Grande, Arima, Tunapuna, San Juan, Barataria, Laventille, Port of Spain, Diego Martin. In south and central, the teams did a head count on streets from Point Fortin to Princes Town; San Fernando, Marabella, Couva, Chaguanas and Grand Bazaar.The ministry gave no indication of when a count will be done in Tobago.