A transition space Maureen's Place

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Accents of the United States variety are commonplace on the Windward Road premises, adjacent to Bellevue Hospital, which houses the Open Arms drop-in shelter for the homeless, a night shelter, and the most recent addition, Maureen's Place.

It is at the last that Dr Maureen Irons-Morgan, director of mental health in the Ministry of Health, hopes many of those accents will begin to rediscover their place in the society, as deportees - in addition to local ex-convicts - transition back to a normal life.

"One day the idea just came to me that we could have this. It could be set up to have single rooms for persons who have now completed some amount of rehabilitation from the level of the night shelter, going through the programmes, and ready to go on to being integrated into the community, to be facilitated in functioning more independently," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

Yvonne Grant, administrator at Open Arms, and Marva Christian, who chairs the Friends of the Homeless organisation, were among those with whom Irons-Morgan first shared the idea. "We did a proposal and Jamaica Reducing Reoffenders Action Plan was very willing," Irons-Morgan said.

The result is a facility which is literally and figuratively in between the drop-in centre and the night shelter, though closer to the latter. The 28-room set-up is reminiscent of a boarding school, with a single bed, combination wardrobe and dresser, and single bed in each unit, with shared wall-mounted fans in place to beat back the heat. A communal room with a television and two sofa sets is in between the kitchen and bathroom, a dining room set-up offering seating for 14 persons at three tables.

Nine rooms are now occupied. Persons selected for the transitional housing come through the drop-in or night shelter programmes, as well as community group homes.

Not a permanent solution

However, Irons-Morgan says that while Maureen's Place is helping, it is not a permanent solution. "The next step is permanent housing," she said. "This is helping to fill the gap in our housing facilities."

There is another gap that needs to be filled, though, as Grant and Irons-Morgan point out that when the combined facilities moved from proving two meals a day to three, "it was very much a faith decision. We can always use donations of food. What we need is for people to stop feeding the homeless on the streets".

And she sets a lofty goal. "Our plan is to eliminate homelessness in Jamaica," Irons-Morgan said.