Homeless must go to shelters beginning Wednesday
Cities all over the world have to deal with the increasing problem of homelessness and it is no different in Belize City. We have our share of people who for one reason or another dig into the dirt boxes, beg or simply wander from one end of town to another. The general public either views them as a nuisance or wonders what can be done to find them proper shelter. But sometimes even when that shelter is offered, the street people don’t want it. On Wednesday, however, there will be a crackdown and police will pick up anyone found sleeping in the open. It is an attempt to get these people off the street and get them some of the social services they need. News Five spoke with some of those who will be forced to come inside.
We pass them along the way without giving them much thought: the homeless who seem to find comfort on the streets rather than inside the safe haven of a house or shelter. It is not known just how many people are living on the streets but on any given night you can find as many as thirty or more persons in the downtown area alone.
Wayne “HBO” Forthnard
“When it is cold I use a blanket, a cardboard box to shelter.”
Ida Simpson
“It is cold and then you hungry; you have nothing. You don’t have any change of clothes because if I continue to stay out here I can’t bathe. I can’t change my clothes so I guess you don’t have a change of clothes. You smell and you don’t have nothing to eat.”
Imagine going through the day with no food or nothing to keep you warm. While it is hard to understand why some of the homeless choose to live this way, there are others who do not have a choice. Some may have lost their home due to a disaster, others may be mental or drug cases while some have simply been neglected by family.
Luis Acosta
“When that fire, I wasn’t home you know, when that fire I had already left home and then everybody had asked where I was and they told them I had already left out in the morning.”
Q: “But since then you have been living on the streets? Where have you been sleeping at night?”
Luis Acosta
“Well I am not really a homeless just fighting until I could get a little home and pay for rent. Try to get a piece of land and try to get a help to build the house.”
Wayne “HBO” Forthnard
“My grandma had died so I came back from Stann Creek, cause I can’t live there anymore. They thief everything out of my house.”
It has been nine years that forty-eight year old Wayne “HBO” Forthnard has been on the streets. During the nights, Wayne can be found sleeping outside the Belize Bank. During the day, he can be seen begging on the streets. The stories the homeless tell are both interesting and imaginative.
Q: “How you survive on the streets?”
Wayne “HBO” Forthnard
“By working on the streets — wash car, do mechanic you know, bank work, secretary, work at Santos Diaz and Sons on Central American Boulevard. That’s how I survived to make money.”
Jacqueline Woods
“There have been attempts to try and rid the streets of homeless people but despite the fact that night shelters have been
established these men and women can still be found sleeping on the streets, in our parks or even under office buildings throughout the city.”
Daisy White
“The night shelters well I no use. You know why I no use the night shelters because you know a lot of people are around there and you find with my kind of thing, one of the kind of work that I do I can’t handle those kind of thing. I got to be somewhere like in a hospital or in the fresh air, like how the park is.”
Q: “So you love the outdoors?”
Daisy White
“Yes, I love the outdoors.”
Luis Acosta
“Well it is good but it shouldn’t be just a period of time you know what I mean like when you try to get a little house or so or a family you know.”
Q: “You have any family?”
Luis Acosta
“Yes, they live in Corozal.”
Q: “And you don’t want to go to Corozal to stay with them?”
Luis Acosta
“Well I go to Corozal for the little time because it is in Belize that I make my little living.”
Wayne “HBO” Forthnard
“It’s dirty you know the grass need to be chopped, the flies, insect, too much boss, too much manager.”
However, on Wednesday December twenty-second, the government will enforce the Loitering Law. For several weeks members of the newly formed Homeless Task Force have been combing the streets advising the homeless they must seek shelter.
Homeless Task Force Member
“We will need for you to check in there Wednesday afternoon on the twenty-second. After this the police will pick you up off the streets because you can’t be on government property sleeping.”
Homeless Woman
“Although I have work. I am a principal teacher at Holy Redeemer. And where can I sleep then?”
Homeless Task Force Member
“You will be able to sleep at the home.”
The home: St. Vincent De Paul Good Samaritan Center at number six Pickstock Street will be officially opened on Wednesday. The center will operate as a night shelter from six p.m. to seven a.m. and as a drop in center where residents can take part in social and recreational activities or just rest.
Roy Bowen, Director, Human Development
“It is an opportunity to give them a chance to do something. If somebody does not want to play dominoes or checkers, they may want to watch TV. If they do not want to watch TV they may want to sit around and read. If they don’t want to sit around and read, they could maybe find little things to do around the center.”
Bowen says he does not see the Good Samaritan Home as the solution to the homeless problem but it will help to address the situation. Bowen said there are many other matters including family issues that will need to be examined.
Roy Bowen
“Why people are choosing to live on the streets instead of living at home? We need to look at why we have a thirty-five year old person living on the streets and not at home when that is an able body that can work. I mean there are a lot of issues; you have to look at the economic issues, you have to look at several things.”
In the meantime the homeless remain on the streets trying to live life the best way they know how.
Q: “So you sleep right out here?”
Wayne “HBO” Forthnard
“I sleep right out here.”
Q: “Right next to Miss Daisy?”
Wayne “HBO” Forthnard
“Right next to Miss Daisy.”
Q: “Do you find that a lot of people are sleeping out on the street?”
Wayne “HBO” Forthnard
“Yeah, a lot of people are sleeping out in the streets here — eighteen, thirteen, nineteen — on the streets, you know. You have a lot of drugs you know, killing people, a lot of noise, thieving. Policeman and B.D.F. have to be out twenty-four/seven, you know.”
The Good Samaritan Home will be able to accommodate one hundred persons and will also include a room for counseling, medical examinations, offices for staff and bathroom facilities.
