‘We will go out and assess the homeless’ - St James residents urged to report issues regarding unhoused people to authorities

WESTERN BUREAU:

Residents of St James are being encouraged to contact the relevant authorities for assistance whenever they see homeless people, including those who may have mental health challenges, roaming the streets of Montego Bay and the wider parish.

In recent times, there have been complaints about the actions of certain homeless people in Montego Bay. Reports include one man taking up residence at the Jarrett Park complex and another setting up a living space on the sidewalk near the Decarteret Hotel along Jimmy Cliff Boulevard.

Lennox Wallace, the St James Health Department’s parish manager, told The Gleaner that, in some cases, homeless individuals may have been brought into St James from other parishes and abandoned by their relatives.

“We encourage the public just to report it to us whenever they see these persons, and we are always willing to go out and make the assessment and treat those who we have on record. At times we might find some persons that are not on our record, because a person will take somebody from another parish to Montego Bay and leave them, because they just cannot care for them,” said Wallace.

“When we do our investigations, we will see that this person is not on our record, but government policy says that we must still treat them, and then we place them on record because they are now in our parish,” Wallace added. “Also, a lot of persons misconstrue homelessness as meaning those persons have mental health challenges, but there is a distinct difference.”

St James Health Department data suggests that, of the 1,553 males and 1,111 females in the parish who have some type of mental illness, only 10 males and six females currently live on the streets. It could not be ascertained how many homeless people there currently are in St James or how many of them originate from outside the parish.

According to Wallace, part of the problem is that when homeless people, whether mentally ill or not, are taken to the hospital for check-ups in response to reports submitted to the health department, their relatives do not come to retrieve them.

“We go for them and treat them whenever a complaint is made, and if the people have to go to the hospital to be checked on, we take them. But a lot of times, the loved ones for these persons do not come when they are to be discharged, because the family members occupy the homes where some of these people live, and they cannot take care of them,” said Wallace.

St James has had a shameful history of poor treatment of homeless and mentally ill people, with the July 15, 1999 street people scandal being one of the parish’s most infamous cases. In that incident, municipal workers and the police took more than 30 street people – some of whom had mental challenges – off the streets of Montego Bay and transported them to a mud lake in rural St Elizabeth, where they were dumped and abandoned.

Other occasions when Montego Bay’s street people have been mistreated include the 2010 death of 54-year-old Lionel Maitland, after several youngsters doused him with gasoline and set him on fire while he was sleeping along a sidewalk; the case of Rushawn Bulgin, who smashed homeless man Matthew Lettman’s head with a rock on March 7, 2023; and the case of Ronaldo Ricketts, who was arrested for reportedly attacking seven homeless people with a sharp object, killing four of them, between July 28 and August 20, 2023.

Difficult history

Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon said the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), which he chairs, has taken steps over the years to treat street people with greater dignity, including making efforts to get them off the streets and into gainful employment and better living circumstances.

“Montego Bay has had a difficult history in dealing with street persons, including those with mental health challenges, and we are determined to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated. Our approach today is rooted in compassion, dignity, and partnership, ensuring that vulnerable persons are supported while the wider public is reassured that solutions are being pursued,” said Vernon.

“At present, the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI) is closed, but the municipal corporation is actively working with its owners and partners to facilitate alternative strategies, including the establishment of a transitional centre or similar programme. We provide ‘day of care’ treatment and employment programmes through our drop-in shelter and, over the past two years, 10 persons have successfully transitioned from the streets into earning and meaningful engagement,” Vernon explained.

In 2023, the StJMC held discussions on developing strategies to reduce St James’ homeless population, including the creation of a transitional centre to help homeless people reintegrate into society.

Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police Eron Samuels, the St James Police Division’s commanding officer, told The Gleaner that the police are prepared to support the health department in dealing with street people, including those with mental illness.

“We are ready to work with the Ministry of Health in dealing with these issues [because] these persons can impact the tourism product and impact the daily lives of persons. In looking at things from a humanitarian perspective, the Ministry of Health needs to step up to assist these persons, and we can assist them as much as we can, but we want to try and avoid confrontations with persons who have mental illnesses,” said Samuels.

“Many persons think that the police are the main persons to deal with persons that have mental illness. However, we are there to support the Ministry of Health’s mental health team to deal with them, since we have not received adequate training to deal with that. But, as always, when the police are called to assist, we will go to assist in the best way we can,” Samuels continued.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com