By Erica Virtue, Staff ReporterTHE $20,000 PER month compensation to be paid to the homeless and mentally ill people who were scooped up from the streets of Montego Bay, has begun to flow to the recipients, long after a Commission of Enquiry ordered redress.
Inspector of Poor for St. James, Jeremiah Dehaney, said his records have accounted for 18 individuals, at least five of whom are receiving care, some in a private facility and others from citizens and family.
Reports on the street people dumping have put the number of victims at 32.
In an interview Friday, Mr. Dehaney said a ward, comprising individual bedrooms, dining and living area and furnished with refrigerator and television, has been refurbished to house some of the victims.
The ward, located on the grounds of the infirmary, was refurbished by the St. James Parish Council, in accordance with the order of the Karl Patterson Enquiry.
"The ward is there for those who want to live there," he said last week.
It initially housed five of the victims, but one left for the streets again, said Mr. Dehaney.
Asked for the status of all 18 named in the Enquiry, he said, "Five have been contacted but still live on the streets. Four are being cared for by friends and family, three cannot be located, and one is in a private nursing home. Four are at the infirmary and one absconded. That should give 18."
Mr. Dehaney said where victims were placed with families there must be documented proof of the relationship, which must be validated by a Justice of the Peace. The relatives must also sign an agreement that they will care for the victims, he said.
"Following submission of those documents, an investigation is done to determine whether the person is capable of caring for the victims, and the findings must satisfy the Board of Trustees," he said.
Mr. Dehaney said since January 2001, the Parish Council has been paying for the medical care of some of the victims while the determination was being made about their future. The last payment was on May 6, 2001 to purchase medication.
The victims are issued with a medical record card which the families must show that they are getting medical care.
Administrator for the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), Nurse Joy Crooks, said her organisation has assisted in placing one victim.
"I know of one person who has received her benefit. Through the compensation system we were able to link up with a nursing home, and place her in the home," Nurse Crooks said last week.
"Her compensation money is used to pay the monthly costs for her at the home."
She also said one victim, Vernon Gibson, told her he was living in rented accommodation and was given rent money and an allowance.
Compensation was ordered following a Gleaner story, which broke news of the forced removal of a number of persons who lived on the streets of MoBay in 1999. It emerged that the street people were rounded up, bound with rope, pepper-sprayed, and dumped near a mud lake in St. Elizabeth.
There was widespread condemnation of the act, in which the police, politicians and the Parish Council were implicated.
