300 living on TT streets

Speaking on a programme yesterday on radio station i95.5 FM, she reported that the last count in 2015 was 309 socially displaced people in the cities.

“So what has happened the Ministry of Social Development under my leadership I decided we need to have a multi-sectoral collaborative approach to this,” she said.

She reported that on January 19 she convened a meeting which was attended by the ministers of national security, health, rural and local government and the mayors of Portof- Spain, San Fernando, Arima and Point Fortin.

She added that Chaguanas Mayor Gopaul Boodhan was invited but did not attend.

“That meeting was intended for us to agree on the different roles and responsibilities of each area and how we were going to chart the way forward to eliminate street dwelling from our streets in Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.

She explained that both Government and private sector will be working together. She reported that on Friday the working committee met and they have finalised their terms of reference and their major deliverable is an action plan to chart the way forward in eliminating street dwelling “and they have a time frame of six weeks in which to deliver that”.

“So I am expecting that by the end of March we should have Cabinet approval to proceed with this whole exercise,” she added.