Street people decline help

- Noel Thompson

This young man examines the contents of a garbage receptacle in Montego Bay.

Keril Wright, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

NEARLY half of Montego Bay's street people, who were kidnapped and dumped in St. Elizabeth exactly two years ago, are unlikely to benefit from the Government-recommended $20,000 monthly stipend.

At present only 18 of the 32 street people are on record to benefit from the state compensation for the July 1999 scandal. Apart from three who are still missing, the others are not registered because, the authorities claim, they did not want to be seen by the public as being insane.

"Some of these victims simply did not want to be identified," Joy Crooks, of Montego Bay's Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), told The Sunday Gleaner last week.

"A lot of them were simply destitute individuals who just happened to be on the street that night. They did not want to be identified as mad people."

She said that many of the street people, who were brought back to Montego Bay by CUMI and other organisations or made it back on their own, were too embarrassed to voluntarily admit that they were among the victims.

According to the arrangement, it would cost the Government in excess of $4 million a year to care for the 18 persons who have so far applied for help, and more than twice that amount if all the victims of the street people scandal had come forward.

Yet, according to the St. James Parish Council, which Secretary/Manager Lilieth Allen said has so far received a $1.9 million allocation to the Street People Fund, even those who were named at the enquiry might never get any money.

"These people cannot care for themselves and if they are judged incapable of handling their own affairs how could we possibly give them money?" said Mrs. Allen.

However, there may be a possible exception. The Board of Trustees, she said, will meet on Wednesday to review the mental assessment of Vernon Gibson and decide whether he will be handed his monthly $20,000 stipend. According to Mrs. Allen, who is also secretary to the board, Mr. Gibson, popularly known as "Rasta Villa", underwent psychiatric assessment at the Cornwall Regional Hospital to determine whether or not he is capable of handling the money. Mrs. Allen declined to discuss the details of the findings, although she added that they were "very favourable" to Mr. Gibson.

If Mr. Gibson is assessed to be capable of managing his own affairs, he will be the only victim of the street people scandal who will now receive money directly to date. Mr. Gibson, a former hotel owner and notably Montego Bay's most popular street person, was one of the first to make it safely back to the city after the abduction.

It has been almost a year since a commission of enquiry recommended that the victims receive lifetime compensation for their ordeal. Many did receive the benefits until January, but the process, authorities claim, has been hard.

"It was a long and difficult process, identifying these persons and getting the help of family members," said Jeremiah Dehaney, inspector of poor for St. James, who manages and allocates money from the fund.

He explained that six of the street people are being housed at the St. James Infirmary, six remain on the streets and have refused to be institutionalised, while three are being cared for by either family or guardians. The remaining three, he explained, have not been located.

Daniel Watkins, one of those living at the infirmary, said that he was glad to be off the streets, but did not like the way his life had ended up.

"None ah mi family ever live in a poor house," he told The Sunday Gleaner, adding that the people at the infirmary had been taking good care of him.

Yesterday the Montego Bay chapter of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) scheduled a memorial service for the three street people who never returned from the July 15 roundup and dumping. They are feared dead.

"Some time after that despicable act they found three bodies near to where the street people were dumped," said Elizabeth Hall of JFJ. "We can only hope it was not the three unfortunate ones who never made it back."

Meanwhile, Mr. Dehaney said that since January, the Poor Relief Department has spent approximately $333,000 of the $400,000 allocation he received from the Parish Council. Also, in excess $623,000 has been used to construct a five-bedroom dwel-ling house on the grounds of the infirmary, which will house the five males at that institution. Matron Nora Chambers told The Sunday Gleaner that the men will move into their new house before the end of this week.

But while the lot of a few street people has improved, others are arriving in droves and the situation is again what it was two years ago - dozens of destitute, mentally ill roving the streets of the tourist capital.

"There is more now than ever," Mr. Dehaney said. "You try to care for as many as you can but more and more keep coming."

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