Mayor to remove City’s homeless

“When I came in as Mayor, the Prime Minister indicated that the city of Port-of-Spain was not in a well state. He said the streets were filled with a lot of homeless people who seem to be living in our parks and on the streets.

“That’s not good for the city, it’s affected a lot of people. What I understand from corporate citizens is that they are frustrated with what has happened with the homeless.

They have taken over the parks in downtown Port-of- Spain and that is not a good sign,” he said.

Martinez was speaking to members of the media yesterday after the City Corporation’s first statutory meeting at the Council Chambers, Port-of-Spain City Corporation, City Hall, Knox Street.

The mayor said Port-of-Spain had homeless people like every other city in the world and how one treated their homeless people, how they dealt with them, was up to those in charge.

“We are the leaders, we have to deal with it. I am the new Mayor of Port-of-Spain, I have just come in, I have a mandate to assist in clearing up the city and to make it clean.

And part of making it clean is to make sure people are not defecating on the streets, and urinating on every wall, and sleeping on the streets and eating out of the garbage and spewing the containers all over. You have to have law and order,” he said.

Martinez said to do that, they had to take care of the homeless, adding that there are different categories of homelessness. He said there are people who had fallen through the cracks,those who had been displaced, those who had been deported and had nowhere to go and some who are drug addicts and there were those who were mentally ill.

“The mentally ill persons pose a challenge to the right thinking citizens who walk down the street.

They feel affected that at any point in time, one of these mentally people can attack them and there is really no redress.

Citizens feel uncomfortable.

These (homeless) people are vulnerable ... but we have to implement rules, and make sure they are taken off the streets,” he said. Martinez said he has been in touch with the Social Development Ministry, Ministry of National Security, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Health and the Attorney General’s Office. He said Social Development Minister, Cherrie-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn, has laid out a plan to go forward and has asked that a task force be set up so they could treat with the issue once and for all.

“We want to do it in a very humane manner and in a civilised way. We want to bring all the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and everybody who can possibly help together, even the merchants,” the mayor said.