By Denise Clarke, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE COMMITTEE for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), which is based in Montego Bay, says it may have to close its night shelter by the end of April unless the St. James Parish Council decides to take it over.
Joy Crooks, nurse-administrator at CUMI, said it was no longer feasible for the NGO to run the shelter, as only three of the 19 inmates who started out with the programme, were still there.
"Most of those persons, except for three individuals, are now back in their homes and united with their families and, at the moment, we are running the night shelter with three persons there. Staffwise it's costing us the same amount as when we had 19 persons there. So, we cannot run the night shelter at that rate," Nurse Crooks explained.
She said CUMI was awaiting a response from the council regarding a request to take over the operations of the night shelter, which is costing just under $100,000 a month to run.
Financial constraints also figure heavily in the decision to close the night shelter which is situated at Albion Road, Montego Bay, St. James. Previously, the shelter operated on its own budget until a few years ago, when CUMI began subsidising the operations through funds provided for the day centre at Brandon Hill in the parish.
The proposal to the St. James Parish Council is to finance the operations of the shelter and to broaden the services offered to members of the public. Only persons using the CUMI day centre now have access to the night shelter. CUMI has applied to the St. James Infirmary for accommodation for the three persons who remain at the shelter, should the council turn down its request.
"When we run the night shelter, we run it just to cater for those who are on the rehabilitation programme and they (the council) could broaden it and take in that wider social need as a night shelter. So we are waiting to hear how they are going to respond to that proposal," said Nurse Crooks.
She said the operations at the day centre, which provides meals, medication and rehabilitative treatment to about 20 of Montego Bay's homeless, would not be affected by the closure of the night shelter. A trust fund set up six years ago to fund the basic operations of the day centre is still $10 million short of its $15 million target. However, Nurse Crooks is hopeful that CUMI will be able to keep up the operations of the day centre which costs up to up $250,000 monthly.
"For the near future we don't see any problems for the day centre unless we fail to get the $15 million. Then the day centre will be in problems," she said.
