Port-of-Spain South MP, Kei­th Scot­land, says there would be a re­newed push from the au­thor­i­ties to ad­dress the prob­lem of home­less­ness in the cap­i­tal city from 2025. 

Scot­land made the re­marks while speak­ing with re­porters dur­ing a meal dis­tri­b­u­tion event at the George Street Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre in his con­stituen­cy on Christ­mas Day. 

While he did not di­vulge the de­tails of what this re­newed ap­proach would in­clude, he said it would in­volve the con­struc­tion of a home­less shel­ter at the be­gin­ning of Old St Joseph Road, which leads to down­town Port-of-Spain. 

He stressed that the is­sue would be dealt with in a “re­al and hu­mane” man­ner. 

“I have found that the city is not as we want it to be as it re­lates to that is­sue. 

“That is­sue of the home­less on the street, some may be phys­i­cal, men­tal, emo­tion­al and some may even be spir­i­tu­al, but what I can tell you is turn your eyes to the bot­tom of the Old St Joseph Road, where there is the Cen­tre go­ing up there.” 

Scot­land said the Christ­mas Day feed­ing ini­tia­tive was in its fifth year and was a par­tic­u­lar­ly im­por­tant pro­gramme for him as MP. 

He not­ed that over 1,000 peo­ple were ex­pect­ed to ben­e­fit from the event, but al­so said that an ad­di­tion­al 2,000 fam­i­lies were al­so ex­pect­ed to ben­e­fit from a care pack­age dri­ve or­gan­ised through his of­fice as MP. 

“We team up with the soup kitchen and oth­er en­vi­rons and we cater for our peo­ple. 

“Not every­one is as for­tu­nate as oth­ers are, so they need a lit­tle as­sis­tance, so we pro­vide it in a very dig­ni­fied way.”