Bryan: Homeless families to be housed immediately

(CNS): The UPM government has made a policy commitment to housing all homeless Caymanian families with children ensuring that no kids are sleeping on the street, in tents or in cars. Addressing parliament, Wednesday, Kenneth Bryan, who took over responsibility for social development last month, said the policy directions to the department of financial assistance would improve the response to the most vulnerable seeking help and enable staff to “act without delay”.

In an official statement to the House Bryan said anyone who comes to the department of financial assistance stating they have nowhere to live will be assisted immediately if children are involved even if that means booking them into a hotel. The directive mandates that single parents or families with children who are homeless must be assisted with accommodation straight away.

“It may increase the cost of the department’s budget but the urgency of these situations where children are involved means that the safety and the dignity of those we are here to protect must override the other concerns including costs,” Bryan said.

Referring to media reports of a mother and her children sleeping on the beach after she lost her home he said that the department was aware of her plight but he claimed the existing polices prevented the department from helping. The department is required to find the money to help with accommodation for the homeless but not with finding the accommodation which, Bryan said, was according to the policies in place, down to the applicant.

The minister said the combination of a lack of affordable available accommodation, a limited number of landlords willing to rent to the department’s clients and the lack of transitional housing owned by government “created a perfect storm” that led to the nightmare the family had to endure living in a tent on the beach.

“This is not what we want for our children,” he said. “This new policy ensures that no Caymanian children who need help and whose families go the department for assistance will face the trauma or dangers of homelessness.

Bryan added that the gap in the social assistance safety net is significantly aggravated by the lack of transitional government owned social housing. He said he had brought a motion to parliament when he was on the opposition benches for government to begin building its own social housing apartment block. But he said this policy will fill the gap until that can happen.

Alongside the accommodation directive, Bryan said that mothers will no longer be forced to seek maintenance from non-compliant fathers when seeking financial assistance as a condition of the payments given the risks that might pose to some women who have left abusive relationships. BRyan pointed out this was placing them in what he said were “vulnerable or even dangerous situations.” Bryan said it should be the state that seeks the maintenance from fathers in such circumstances helping to protect the mothers involved.

He also told his colleagues that temporary assistance is going to be extended to all those currently receiving or apply for it from three to six months before they need to reapply to avoid any implications of impropriety during the election campaign. This is to avoid any perception that refusals or approvals of government welfare is being used to court votes. “This will help preserve the credibility of the department from any political criticism,” Bryan said, adding that people still need to contact the department in relation to any change of circumstances.

The department has been asked to monitor the changes to see how much impact they have on tackling some of the complex problems surrounding social assistance.

Following Bryan’s statement, Andre Ebanks the former minister, pointed out that there has always been a policy to accommodate homeless families immediately but the issue he said was that hotels had begun refusing to take NAU clients and asked had that situation changed with regard to hotels.

Bryan said he was told the policy had not been in place for a year or so because of the but hotels not willing to take them was not an excuse but he said they have been able to find some hotels willing to work with the department. The minister also said that the provision which was supposed to deal with maintenance issues had not addressed the problem of keeping parties apart for safety reason.