So­cial­ly dis­placed peo­ple be­tween the ages of 35 and 55 years in the Bor­ough of Ari­ma will soon be able to seek shel­ter at the new­ly opened Cara­po House Tran­si­tion­al Cen­tre, lo­cat­ed along the Ari­ma Main Road.

It is the lat­est ad­di­tion to the net­work of fa­cil­i­ties that are part of the so­cial pro­tec­tion sys­tem ad­min­is­trat­ed by the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices (MS­DFS).

Dur­ing the rib­bon cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny for the fa­cil­i­ty yes­ter­day (April 22, 2025), Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Sen­a­tor Don­na Cox de­scribed home­less­ness as “a com­plex is­sue that af­fects in­di­vid­u­als from all walks of life.”

“It is a chal­lenge that re­quires not on­ly im­me­di­ate re­lief, but al­so sus­tain­able so­lu­tions that would em­pow­er those af­fect­ed to re­build their lives with dig­ni­ty and pur­pose,” Min­is­ter Cox said. “This tran­si­tion­al home, there­fore, rep­re­sents a cru­cial step in ad­dress­ing this chal­lenge.”

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­is­ter, “Cara­po House of­fers safe tem­po­rary ac­com­mo­da­tion for in­di­vid­u­als who have been dis­placed due to a range of chal­lenges in­clud­ing nat­ur­al and man-made dis­as­ters, eco­nom­ic hard­ship, and per­sons who tran­si­tion out of a youth fa­cil­i­ty. It is not sim­ply about shel­ter.”

Cara­po House can ac­com­mo­date up to 30 sin­gle adults at a time—be­tween the ages of 35 and 55 years—and will pro­vide dai­ly care, three dai­ly meals, psy­cho-so­cial sup­port and coun­selling, ac­cess to med­ical care, and life skills de­vel­op­ment.

“These ser­vices are in­tend­ed to sup­port res­i­dents as they tran­si­tion to in­de­pen­dent liv­ing,” Min­is­ter Cox not­ed. “It is a space for heal­ing, growth and rein­te­gra­tion.”

The Cara­po House Tran­si­tion­al Cen­tre project cost ap­prox­i­mate­ly TT$2.6 mil­lion.