Once again, personnel from the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) had to ask for the assistance of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) while carrying out their duties.
Public Relations Officer Carl Padmore said this morning that SSA personnel were responding to a request from the Ministry of Health to clean the site of the former temporary Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN) market at Cheapside, St Michael and a homeless person occupying the space was resisting their efforts.
He said that while SSA workers were cleaning the area, the vagrant, who occupied about 20 feet of space there, got in the way.
In addition to calling for the assistance of police officers, Padmore has asked friends and relatives of homeless people to seek help for them.
“There is nothing wrong with reaching out for help for them,” he said.
Padmore said the area was unsightly. At the time the area was still being cleaned and there were about three truckloads of garbage already gathered.
The SSA official also called on owners of open lots and people with abandoned buildings to secure their property to avoid the spaces and buildings being taken over by vagrants.
Padmore said that this is the third time they have cleaned areas occupied by this homeless person, who moves around.
Additionally, he reminded that the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness, led by president Kemar Saffrey, is an option available to homeless people.
Recently, the SSA also cleaned an area in Holetown, St James which had been occupied by an individual without permission. That project was carried out with the assistance of the RBPF and the business community.
Earlier this year, SSA personnel also had to seek the assistance of police officers while cleaning the premises of the Treasury Building in The City.
Well-known homeless person “Ninja Man”, who had made a section of the Treasury Building’s premises his “home” for some time, was asked to move along back then. (KG)
