Over a dozen street dwellers have been dis­placed af­ter bar­ri­cades were put up around Har­ris Prom­e­nade and oth­er pub­lic spaces in San Fer­nan­do, in a bid to pre­vent the spread of COVID-19.

Ear­ly yes­ter­day, May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo and his team be­gan dis­man­tling tents and oth­er struc­tures used by the home­less to shel­ter from the rain and sun. Cau­tion tape was placed around the Prom­e­nade. Sim­i­lar il­le­gal struc­tures were de­mol­ished at Cof­fee Street, Lewis Street and Cipero Street.

But the street dwellers, who have been liv­ing on the Prom­e­nade for years, say they now do not know where to go be­cause the night shel­ters and Court Sham­rock Home for the So­cial­ly Dis­placed are full.

Court Sham­rock was re­cent­ly ren­o­vat­ed and ac­com­mo­dates over 50 peo­ple, while the Caribbean Dawah As­so­ci­a­tion’s night shel­ter ac­com­mo­dates 30.

Street dweller Amardeo Bi­jou told Guardian Me­dia he goes to the Prom­e­nade every day to get food from Good Samar­i­tans. 

“Right now we have nowhere to go. Where they want us to go? The night shel­ters close at 6 o’clock in the morn­ing and where they ex­pect us to go af­ter that,” he said.

Bi­jou said his fa­ther had com­mit­ted sui­cide years ago and his broth­ers lat­er sold their fam­i­ly’s home, leav­ing him on the streets. 

Ronald Mo­hammed, a for­mer Port Au­thor­i­ty work­er who fell on hard times, said he start­ed drink­ing Bayrum and even con­tem­plat­ed self-harm at one point. Now that they have been moved out, he too felt de­fence­less. 

But Re­grel­lo promised to find ac­com­mo­da­tion for the street dwellers at Court Sham­rock. He said the bar­ri­cades were need­ed to pre­vent the spread of COVID-19, not­ing that mem­bers of the pub­lic were con­tin­u­ing to con­gre­gate at the Prom­e­nade.

He said peo­ple go to feed the home­less and this al­so pos­es health risks.

“We are gath­er­ing da­ta on how to as­sist these peo­ple. In the in­ter­im, while the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment works out a so­lu­tion, we are try­ing to as­sist. I will speak to Sham­rock and if we can pro­vide ad­di­tion­al beds, we will do so. We will ex­am­ine the state of each in­di­vid­ual. If there are no beds in Sham­rock, we will pur­chase beds,” Re­grel­lo said.

Agree­ing that the sit­u­a­tion was “heart­break­ing,” Re­grel­lo said, “It is al­so a sen­si­tive is­sue and we are try­ing to deal with it as best as we could.”

Re­grel­lo said Bi­jou was not home­less but vis­it­ed the Prom­e­nade every day for food. He said so far, they had iden­ti­fied five peo­ple who are will­ing to leave the streets and two oth­ers in need of em­ploy­ment.

Mean­while head of the Caribbean Dawah As­so­ci­a­tion, Asad Ya­coobali, said 30 street dwellers are ac­com­mo­dat­ed at the night shel­ter. He said they all re­ceive din­ner and break­fast.

The as­so­ci­a­tion re­ceives no gov­ern­ment stipend and is fund­ed en­tire­ly by Good Samar­i­tans. He said so far, there is no more room for any oth­er street dweller but not­ed that if the As­so­ci­a­tion gets a big­ger space, they will ac­com­mo­date more peo­ple.

He said with in­creased evic­tions and job­less­ness, more peo­ple were end­ing up on the streets.

Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist the home­less can con­tact Ya­coobali at 323- 8402 or make con­tri­bu­tions to Caribbean Dawah As­so­ci­a­tion RBC- 110000004253731.

To sched­ule a meal con­tact Ami­rah at 468-6237.