RHON­DOR DOWLAT

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices is cur­rent­ly mak­ing arrange­ments to re­lo­cate over 80 res­i­dents from the River­side Plaza in Port-of-Spain, as it moves to shut down the op­er­a­tions there.

This was con­firmed yes­ter­day by line min­is­ter Don­na Cox, who still steered clear of say­ing they were clos­ing down the fa­cil­i­ty.

Cox as­sured that the So­cial­ly Dis­placed Unit at the min­istry is at this time at­tempt­ing to lo­cate avail­able space at re­spec­tive homes to place the res­i­dents.

“We are re­lo­cat­ing them based on their sit­u­a­tions to dif­fer­ent homes. We have start­ed re­lo­cat­ing some of them out al­ready and we are lo­cat­ing homes to put them in. Some of them who are el­der­ly would be put in se­nior cit­i­zens’ homes. Who’s sick will go in­to com­mu­ni­ty care pro­grammes, which will be homes to take care of them. Those in need of re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion will be sent to re­spec­tive cen­tres and in so do­ing, we al­ready had dis­cus­sions with Vi­sion on Mis­sion. They will be tak­en care of,” Cox said.

She said the site, es­tab­lished in 1991, was sup­posed to be a tem­po­rary mea­sure.

With re­spect to the cur­rent staff, Cox said they are hired by St Vin­cent de Paul So­ci­ety to man­age the fa­cil­i­ty.

“We have not re­leased any in­for­ma­tion be­cause we are now putting arrange­ments in place, so with the staff, we have no deal­ings with the staff, as they are the ones man­ag­ing the fa­cil­i­ty for us,” she said.

“We would have sent a let­ter to them in­di­cat­ing our in­ten­tion.” Asked if the build­ing, which was ini­tial­ly a mul­ti-sto­ry car park, is ear­marked for any oth­er par­tic­u­lar use, the min­is­ter said “No.”

She added that since it be­longs to the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Prop­er­ty De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NIPDEC), “it would be hand­ed over back to them.”

Asked if the min­istry will wel­come any vol­un­teers from pri­vate homes and in­sti­tu­tions to take in some res­i­dents who are still pend­ing re­lo­ca­tion, Cox replied: “We will wel­come per­sons who are will­ing to take them be­cause wher­ev­er we put them, we are will­ing to pay for them. Those who are em­ploy­able, we will al­so be as­sist­ing them to get on their feet to that point of in­de­pen­dence.”