Port-of-Spain City Corporation hopes to develop the abandoned National Broadcasting Network (NBN) building on Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, into a night shelter for homeless people. Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing said so yesterday during a tour and stakeholder meeting at the New City Mall and the East Side Plaza yesterday. Lee Sing said the proposed shelter would accommodate those who slept on the street and not drug addicts and those with mental health illnesses. Homeless people deported from foreign countries were also expected to be housed at the facility.
"The building is good and has a lot of bathroom facilities," Lee Sing said. "There is also an area at the top of the building that can be used as a cafeteria area." Lee Sing said the project was still before the corporation's council and yet to be decided upon. At present, the Centre for the Socially Displaced at Riverside Plaza in Port-of-Spain is one of the only places in the nation's capital for vagrants. Lee Sing added that if approved by the council, the corporation would then seek funds to do refurbishment works to the building to make it safe and comfortable for use as a residence for the homeless.
The building at 17 Abercromby Street, which has been abandoned for years, was one of several owned by NBN, the defunct state-owned media house that controlled radio stations, which were located at Abercromby Street and the television station, which was located on Maraval Road. NBN closed its operations in January 2005.