Homeless housing effort gets backing

MANDEVILLE, Manchester:

EFFORTS BY the Community of Concerned Citizens (CCC) to build a holding shelter for the town's mentally challenged and street people, got a major financial boost when it staged a fund-raising dinner at the Golf View Hotel on May 14.

The CCC has been spearheading a drive since last year to provide an appropriate housing facility for the parish's less fortunate and homeless.

The project picked up momentum when Prime Minister P.J. Patterson gave the proposal his blessings during a ground-breaking ceremony for the building earlier this year.

According to Mrs. Joyce Powell, a director of the CCC, the fund-raising event was very successful and received support from a wide cross-section of businesses and individuals.

Food for the Poor, Pick-a-pepper factory, Alpart, Alcan, Jamaica Money Market Brokers, National Commercial Bank (NCB) and CIBC Jamaica, along with more than 100 individuals and other firms are supporting the effort with money and material.

Mr. Archibald Bloomfield of Brooklyn, New York, has been instrumental in securing substantial overseas support, according to Mrs. Powell. The project is also being supported by persons and entities from as far as Runaway Bay in St. Ann and Falmouth in Trelawny.

Governor-General, Sir Howard Coke, who was the guest speaker at the function, lauded the project and stressed that it was important that "we as a people take responsibility for each other, especially those who are less fortunate."

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