After living a life of crime and violence for most of his life in the United States, 48-year-old Delroy was deported to Jamaica.

Never mind the fact that he left Jamaica when he was six years old and has absolutely no ties to the island except being born here, he was dumped on to the streets of downtown Kingston.

"I never know nothing 'bout Jamaica and they tell me that if I don't have somebody to stay with they gonna send me to Trench Town (Horizon Remand Centre). So I found a number and called a friend of mine and told him I ain't got a room. So I ended up in the Matthews Lane area, and it seemed like everything started over again," Delroy recalls.

Homeless life

It was a single room in which he stayed, without food, without money, without the slightest idea of how he would survive. So, he did what he thought he had to.

"The stress, the isolation, not knowing nobody, being away from my family, being away from my kids ... I got into selling 'coke' and I ended up smoking it," the father of six recounted.

He was locked up at the Horizon Remand Centre in west Kingston, but was later removed and put into a detoxification programme run by Teen Challenge.

"They was too strict and after all that time up there, they don't try to get you no job, no nothing. They just send you back out on the street," he reflects.

Food van

One November day last year, as he sat by the post office along King Street, downtown Kingston, a van pulled up. It was removing street people. "I asked them if it was gonna give them food where they were going, so I jumped in the van," Delroy said.

He was taken to a place where he would not only be fed, but be freer and more hopeful. He had found himself in Open Arms.

Housed in what was once the Bellevue Hospital morgue, Open Arms is bringing renewed hope to the destitute. It's the pilot project of a plan to be implemented in other parts of the Corporate Area and all parishes within the next five years.

Triggered by the dumping of some of Montego Bay's street people, in 1999, and the displacement of some people by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the Government, in collaboration with Bellevue Hospital and the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund, stepped up its efforts to scour the island's streets off the stain of homelessness.

There are some 400 homeless persons on the streets of downtown Kingston alone, half of them mentally ill, health professionals say. The others include drug addicts, the physically disabled and people who have just fallen upon hard times. About 90 per cent are males.

"We want to deal with chronic homelessness in Jamaica and really we want to stop people (from) being fed on the streets," says administrator at the Open Arms drop-in centre, Yvonne Grant.

The aim of the centre is to dignify the homeless, she says, by bringing them into a place where they can be fed and gradually brought back to a better life. "We do what is called a needs assessment for each individual ... and based on what those needs are we try to get them met," she says.

Scheduled activities

They are given activities during the course of the day and those who are illiterate or have little formal education are given classes in mathematics and English.

"Some of them we just teach them basic tolerance, how to interact with another person, social skills and graces," Grant tells The Gleaner. They are also given some skills training where it is needed through the HEART Trust/NTA, while others are taught simple job etiquette.

Only about one year in existence, the Open Arms drop-in centre has helped some of Kingston's homeless find jobs and move on with their lives. Several addicts such as Delroy have also been able to remain clean as a result of intervention, while a number have also returned home to their families.

Delroy hopes the time will come when he will see his children again. But for now, what he wants is "just a nice job that pays rent and buys food".

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com