Yes, I feed the homeless

You see I was leaving work and I had an extra sandwich that I had made that morning that I did not eat because I was trying to follow my doctor’s orders of eating five small meals per day — and really I wasn’t that hungry anyway. So there I was at the lights at the junction of Independence Square and Wrightson Road and there was my favourite homeless guy begging for some food. He does it quite charmingly actually, making feeding motions with his hands as he goes from car to car.

I admit that I have fed him in the past and felt no compunctions about it — someone was begging me for food, I had food, it seemed a simple equation, an act of humanity that I believe is fairly instinctive in most of us. And he doesn’t seem the dangerous sort, saying thanks when he is given something and shrugging when you don’t have.

I have thought of stopping to suggest that he go up to the Duncan Street Facility to get some free food courtesy of the Government but honestly, I am not sure if he knows where Duncan Street is or if he is lucid enough to follow directions...

So, Dr Browne, I found myself incapable of following your suggestion that we should make the streets of the city unfriendly to the homeless. On Good Friday I looked at the facts: the streets were fairly empty so less people to provide food; some Trinis were taking the Minister’s words to heart and were desisting from feeding the homeless; and the promise of taking the homeless to a better place (Piparo, not heaven) was taking longer than anticipated. So had I not fed this homeless man he might be dead on the street on this Easter weekend, something I think the arisen Jesus might frown upon.

I have actually been better with the street kids. Instead of buying them food I suggest that they go up to Duncan Street and I have discovered that they all know where that is so they know they have options. However... Each one that I have spoken to tells me that they do not like the Duncan Street facility because the older homeless men pick on them, attacking them on occasions. One young man told me that he does not like the way “dem people does smell”. Even among the homeless there are standards. The Ministry might want to consider separate facilities for the street kids given these concerns.

With the Summit moving into high gear as this week begins it will be interesting to see what happens to the homeless adults and the street kids. My one hope or plea is that the police and army personnel not treat harshly with those who may still be around.

Sometimes, in the heat of the moment and with personnel on high alert (and some on their high horses) it might be easy to “jostle” a homeless man or woman because they are somewhere that they are not supposed to be.

To be honest, I have this fear that not only the homeless will face some jostling this Summit weekend. Given the uncertain behaviour of police officers at Carnival time, which we have rehearsed many years over, this Summit could prove to be a serious testing ground for the capacity of the police and army officers when it comes to dealing with the public.

There are too many rottweiler officers out there who are willing to bash a few heads or speak roughly to media people who are about doing their work or to members of the public who will be trying to wend their way around the zones of detention, trying to get in and out of Port-of-Spain to shop or visit family and friends or head for a lime. Hopefully, the powers that be have thought to hold some training sessions in public relations so that all does not go awry and all the carefully sanitised and air-brushed plans do not fall apart around us.