The National?Assistance Board (NAB) is trying to get the homeless off the streets.
Officials have been collecting data on the homeless in an attempt to deal with the growing numbers of nomadic people.
Acting assistance director Andrew Browne told the SUNDAY?SUN?indications were that there could be as many as 200 homeless people roaming the streets, the majority being men.
As a result, NAB?officers have been travelling to areas where the homeless have occupied and slept, such as street corners, parks, beaches and public markets, seeking them out and soliciting information in an effort to assist.
Last Friday, the seven-member party led by Browne, and accompanied by a NATION team, went to areas in and around The City, and also to Holetown, St James, and Speightstown, St Peter.
Browne said people who wished to be sheltered would be placed in the Clyde Gollop Shelter in Hindsbury Road, St Michael, which should be reopening soon after being closed for renovations. But since that can only accommodate 30 men, he said other social agencies such as the Rural and Urban Development Commissions and the Welfare Department would also be asked to assist.
He said NAB?was trying to develop demographics on the homeless and some of the information they would be trying to ascertain was why they were homeless, their family background and their state of health.
Browne said indications so far were that the majority of the homeless were between the ages of 20 and 80. He said many indicated they lost their homes as a result of fires, flooding, family disputes or that they had fallen on hard times. Others, he said, were deportees or drug addicts.
Browne also pointed out there were some people who had outright indicated that they did not want to be off the streets.
Acting Senior Welfare Officer James Cummins said he could not force such people to seek shelter. He, however, pointed out that NAB?was undertaking a rehabilitation programme for the homeless in order to get them back into mainstream society.
“We will find jobs for those who are interested in working and link them back with their families,” he said.
