The Challenges of Running a Queer Homeless Shelter in Jamaica

Here is another entry on homelessness presenting the issue as if it is unsolvable all the time, when we all know it is not exactly so; especially given how the only Safe House Project was dubiously closed in 2009/10. We must never forget JFLAG was silent towards JASL's board who made a decision to close the shelter pilot prematurely then leading to a backing up on older populations and new displacement cases.

also see previous homeless matters on Gay Jamaica Watch HERE (newer posts will appear first) Vice conveniently left out the most recent occurrences including internal maters and murder accusations and such (Gay Man Beaten And Left To Die In Sandy Gully, St Andrew) and (22-Y-O Gay Died by Electrocution After Trying to Jump a High Voltage Fence); also see the beginning of the issues from the closure of the project: The Quietus ……… The Safe House Project Closes and The Ultimatum on December 30, 2009

Have a read of the latest presentation on homelessness and see what you make of it:

Source: Viceland (bear in mind it is a paid site so we are subjected to paying to see happenings of our own country/population by a foreigner; talk about the insult to us and lack of principles, but what else is new?)

Homelessness is a massive problem in Jamaica. As of 2015, the unemployment rate in the country was 13.2 percent among adults, and a staggering 38 percent among youth. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in January this year, the Jamaica Observer revealed a 26 percent rise in homelessness over the past three years. The problem is particularly prevalent amongst the country's LGBTQ community, who comprise at least 40 percent 2011 of the overall homeless youth population.

Jamaica is not known for its progressive views on queer issues. In 2006, Time magazine asked if the island was "the most homophobic place on Earth." In 2014, a Human Rights Watch report found that over half of respondents in Jamaica had experienced violence on the basis of their identified gender or sexuality. Reports of corrective rape and the mob murder of gender queer youth Dwayne Jones have also made the headlines in recent years. Across the 1990s, dancehall fast became one of Jamaica's biggest exports, but it has been well documented how many of the scene's biggest stars performed lyrics that openly incited homophobia. While in the 1970s and 1980s the gay rights movement operated much more freely (the country even had known gay clubs and visible LGBTQ space), today activists conduct clandestine operations and hold discreet gatherings as mounting homophobic sentiments pervade public discourse.

Back in 2014, VICE News covered a group of queer homeless youth in Kingston, colloquially referred to as the "Gully Queens." This was part of an outpouring of international concern over the country's queer homelessness problem. Despite widespread media attention in the wake of VICE News's report, the very same group of homeless youth are still on the streets, and the hoped-for improvements have not yet materialized.

Part of the reason LGBTQ communities are so neglected in Jamaica might be due to the fact that almost 70 percent of the country identifies as Christian. Amongst many of them, it is believed that acceptance of LGBTQ persons is akin to turning one's back on God.

On the other side of the fence, seeking help from within the LGBTQ community is complex. As part of the investigation for the new episode of the VICELAND series GAYCATION, which focuses on the current state of LGBTQ life in Jamaica, Yvonne McCalla-Sobers, a leading Jamaican human rights activist and co-founder of LGBTQ-friendly shelter Dwayne's House, tries to explain the mentality: "LGBT persons who are able to have well-paying jobs, drive high-end vehicles, live in gated communities, will have few issues of homophobia, and they want to keep it that way so that they don't have to pay much attention to our youth here," she said. "[It's] class prejudice mixed with why are you doing this to draw attention to us? To make us look bad? "

This is not necessarily to say that there is a lack of sympathy for the homeless youth across the board among the middle-class members of the LGBTQ community. Rather, as J-Flag, Jamaica's leading LGBTQ rights organization stated in its 2013 Annual Report: "The diversity of Jamaica's LGBT community has been masked by the advocacy and media narratives that have focused on victimhood, crime and violence, sex and HIV." Therefore, when choosing issues to campaign for year on year, the middle-class members of the LGBTQ rights movement may be wary that consistently prioritizing the cause of the homeless youth will present the rights movement as a single-issue platform.

According to Dane Lewis, director of J-Flag, one of the greatest barriers to providing shelter for the LGBTQ homeless youth is a lack of funding. NGOs seeking to alleviate the burdens of the queer homeless youth were, and still are, locked in ongoing negotiations with both the government and international agencies for financial support that would help them address the issue on the ground. They find themselves consistently overstretched and unable to provide anything more than stop-gap support.

"The reality is such a project requires a significant investment to run a program that has been envisioned and designed by the various stakeholders invested in the response to homelessness." Lewis said. "Despite submitting proposals to major development agencies, the response has not been favorable."

McCalla-Sobers and Lewis have been spearheading efforts to set up The Larry Chang Centre, an LGBT youth homeless shelter named after the pioneering founder of J-Flag. Though they are hopeful that this year they will receive the last leg of funding needed to make the shelter a reality, the country's pervasive homophobia will likely make finding staff willing to work for an LGBTQ organization, as well as keeping the premises safe, significant challenges.

Until that happens, there are other groups in the country stepping up to help. The National Anti-Discrimination Alliance (NADA) is a Jamaican organization "committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of all people regardless of social or cultural biases." They have provided LGBTQ-friendly safe houses and private shelters for the homeless since 2014. NADA is a small-scale operation, relying largely on the kindness of volunteers willing to open their homes for those in need. When that's not an option, the group will pool their resources and rent a residential property that can be run as a safe house. The shelters can only take on a few guests at a time and operate on a word of mouth basis, but nonetheless, NADA represents a small but significant victory in the struggle to provide shelter to displaced members of Jamaica's LGBTQ community.

Andrew Higgins, founder of NADA, believes that they have so far been able to avoid becoming a target of anti-LGBTQ groups by operating as a "non-discriminatory" organization rather than a "pro-LGBTQ" organization.

The fact still stands, though, that NADA's shelters are primarily aimed at people who are newly homeless, rather than those who have been living without shelter for several years. With a high occurrence of HIV and other medical problems within the long-term LGBTQ homeless community, as well as a high rate of unemployment and training, any shelter will have to provide more than just a roof in order to see the long-term homeless youth rejoin broader society. Therefore, for shelters like NADA's with limited funding, the best strategy is to focus energies on those who have just become homeless in the hope that they can prevent them from becoming homeless in the long-term.

For McCalla-Sobers, it is the fate of the youth population who have been homeless for some years now that she is trying to address once and for all.

"They've been traumatized. Re-traumatized. And traumatized ten times on top of that. People often speak about their behavior, and I'm not sure how I would act in their place." McCalla-Sobers says. "They have made it clear to me in the past; what they really want to do is leave this country."

As it becomes clear that even when provided with shelter many among the LGBTQ homeless youth have been displaced for so long that they believe it is impossible to ever feel at home again in their own country, the need to address their circumstances is more crucial than ever.

Follow Roxy on Twitter.

Learn more about the lives of queer Jamaicans on the latest episode of GAYCATION on VICELAND. Find out how to watch by clicking here.

ENDS

While other persons try in there own way to assist the image of the homeless MSM/Trans persons has been tarnished so badly by reports that it is difficult to get cooperation from persons in terms of temporary shelter.

also see:
Jamaican Artistes wanted to 'clean up' the streets, Say homeless gays not a good look for Jamaica, JFLAG yet to respond 2013

YOUNG MSM/TRANSGENDER WANT TO BE TREATED AS CITIZENS NOT POTENTIAL HIV/AIDS VICTIMS 2014 (wordpress blog)

Community based crisis sheltering is still an option for the displaced 2013 and more from GLBTQJA sister blog HERE (newer posts will appear first)

Let us see where things go from here even as groups as old as in their twenties cannot seem to or want to directly deal with homelessness despite knowing homelessness is the most visible consequence of stigma.

Peace & tolerance

H

The priest did nothing wrong washing lesbians feet in church ...

washing of feet of lesbians Jalna Broderick (Quality Citizenship Jamaica) QCJ & Rochelle McPhee (JFLAG) by Rev Sean Major Campbell

I was asked to give my two cents on this so here it is:

Female group defends clergyman who washed lesbians' feet, bearing in mind the moral of the story is Jesus emphasized not to create outcasts as the woman who was a prostitute who washed his feet and when Peter and others scorned her Jesus reminded them to leave her and let her express her feelings and espoused the parable of the money lender.

See: Luke 7:36-50 - Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman NIV

There was a heated discussion this week among a group of vendors as they tried to decide whether homosexuals should be allowed to attend church and participate in worship.

They were responding to reports of a priest washing the feet of two lesbians during a church service last week.

They all came to the conclusion that the priest did nothing wrong and committed no crime.

"All those who are passing remarks and criticisms had better be careful, because we are all sinners," one woman said.

She explained why she believed the priest washed their feet.

"I believe the priest was following the example of Jesus. I know Jesus would have washed their feet and told them to go and sin no more," she said.

An older woman said she initially disagreed with what the priest did, but when she reflected on the matter, she came to the view that the priest could not have turned them away.

"If the priest had turned them away or chased them from the church, some of the very same people running up their mouth about it would criticise the priest and the church," she said.

another angle of the feet washing

She said it is not easy to please people and "those without sin must cast the first stone".

One of the women referred to an incident at her church last year where a pastor had sexual intercourse with one of the female members inside the vestry.

"So what happened to that pastor?" a member of the group asked.

"Nothing happened to him, he is still preaching at the church because they covered it up," she said.

The women began to list out various illegal and ungodly activities happening in some of the churches.

She said she knew of a case where a pastor got one member pregnant and is still head of the church, but not supporting the child.

"Murderers, thieves, rapists, homosexuals, fornicators and adulterers are holding top positions in some churches. So what is wrong in washing the feet of two lesbians ?" she queried.

"This is perhaps the only act of kindness the women have ever received in their life, and this could change their lifestyle," she said.

She also said she had nothing against homosexuals, as long as they do not force themselves on innocent children or influence them.

"Some homosexuals are barefaced. The ones who try to seduce young children should be locked up," she said.

The Sexual Offences Act which was passed in 2009 has provisions in place to severely punish adults who sexually offend children. Under the act, a child is a person who is under the age of 16.

Besides homosexuality is not illegal it is Buggery that is illegal between two men or a man and a woman with or without consent. It must be proven via a physical examination of the alleged persons with certain natural substances found on specific parts of the body (anus) and certain conditions of the said place.

one of our homeless trans sisters being evicted from a house she and others occupied illegally

Where I depart from the Reverend however is his stance on homelessness for LGBT and the seeming tokenistic nature he and other powerful religious figures have taken by not really helping them consistently as I elaborated on an old post on my GLBTQJA 2014 blog: 

Rev Campbell and Yvonne McCallah Sobers in 2013 at Shoemaker Gully Xmas treat

Hypocrisy from the pulpit on homeless MSM in Jamaica? 2013

Peace & tolerance

H

2nd Anniversary of Displaced Gay Men Double Murder in New Kingston ......... yet no real solutions despite a previous Safe House

 In the distance you can make out the usually contracted undertakers for crime scenes preparing the bodies for removal from the site as a crowd had gathered curiously to see the men apparently.

Today is the second anniversary of the awful murder of 19-year-old Winston Ramsey also known as ‘Blacks’ and 20-year-old Jermaine Thompson aka 'Avatar' in New Kingston by that open lot at the intersection of Lady Musgrave Avenue and Trafalgar Road which made international news, also the day prior to that the demise of community socialite 'Ronica who was also one of my fans as she liked dancemusic that I often spin at parties when wearing my DJ hat and an intersex individual sadly labelled as a hermaphrodite by the media at the time.

'Ronica in the fab days in NY 

On the anniversary a member of parliament from the ruling PNP (buggery review pending) claims he wants to assist the men in the nearby Shoemaker Gully just some chains from where the murder took place, recent issues just show the gravity of the situation: Displaced gay man arrested for sleeping in the Shoemaker Gully in New Kingston

or see: Murder, Homelessness and fallouts ........ and a post I made today on sister blog Gay Jamaica Watch: 
MP Julian Robinson claims he wants help for New Kingston homeless gays

We were told of a Dwayne's House idea (link) which was to address the issue post the awful murder or transgender youth aka "Gully Queen" but that has only been relegated to remote feeding assistance and yet no serious rehabilitatory response as evidenced in an awful fight on Saturday night last after the memorial party for murdered socialite Bebe in Kingston. See: Community Influentials raise concerns about displaced & homeless post Bebe’s murder as concerns rise for persons re-displaced due to his passing. We were also told via a grand announcement as our politicians are good at: Youth Ministry to develop programmes to address LGBT youth, homeless, destitute and vulnerable children when she conflated same gender sex with abuse: Youth Minister Lisa Hanna's conflation of same gender sex & abuse responded to part 2 then lest we not overlook the identified places for sheltering that remain abandoned;

proposed site for homeless shelter under the previous JLP administration

Dwayne's House Easter treat 2014 the slowness of the project I am still guarded about, see Some good news on the homeless MSM front ..... guarded & waiting part 2: Dwayne's House Project site opened



A weedwhacking project in St Catherine continues though it needs much equipment boosts so the men can earn more money, see more HERE and Homeless MSM populations treated over the Christmas season 2013

also see: 
JFLAG has no moral authority to speak on homeless gay men in New Kingston says members of the public.


Kingston’s Homeless MSM challenges scream for proper attention 2013
JFLAG’S NEEDS TO ACCEPT SOME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE TRAFALGAR MURDERS ….. HOMELESSNESS NOT PROPERLY ADDRESSED 2012

At the time of the awful double murder it was speculated at first that it was a lover's quarrel by some media houses as usual then homophobic related by some advocates but the truth finally came to the fore on both tragedies as exploitive same gender issues gone bad and one persons was held for the matter, in Ronica's case a suspect was also held but not much has come of it as witnesses are hard to find allegedly for the case to proceed.

The crisis communication element of public advocacy has been poor and hardly strengthened hence our credibility deficiency and continues disbelief by sections of the population that real homophobic cases exist then to add to that is the flat out refusal by LGBT NGOs to adequately deal with homelessness and displacements with permanent rehabilitation psycho social responses instead the me are paraded as victims for the most part to enhance our reputation as the "most homophobic place on earth" when we know that is NOT true.

Displacements continue as more young persons face backlash from siblings and family or communities who perceive their sexual orientation and feel justified in doing so and with the present hysterical mess related to the Professor Bain conflict of interest matter and anti gay groups that is not helping much to alleviate the challenges. Avenues for community assistance are becoming rare as persons clam up or do not have the resources to extend such help readily.

Some two days after an intersex individual also was murdered as reported on TVJ and elsewhere: 

The St Catherine South police are searching for the killer(s) of a hermaphrodite, whose body was found in bushes in Old Harbour Bay yesterday.
Dead is Shannel Campbell, a 20-year-old labourer of Old Harbour Bay. Reports from the Old Harbour Bay police are that about 10 a.m., the decomposing body of Campbell was found in bushes near an area known as Terminal. Campbell was last seen in the company of a male.

An on-the-spot post-mortem revealed that Campbell had male and female sex organs and that death was caused by a blow with a blunt object. "It basically means that he got a blow to the head and died as a result," an investigator said Police had not identified any suspects or established a motive for the killing.

Meanwhile Mark Sangumetti of a Waltham Park address in Kingston has been charged with the double killing of the homeless men. He was charged yesterday June 24 for two counts of murder. The bodies of 19-year-old Winston Ramsey also known as ‘Blacks’ and 20-year-old Jermaine Thompson also called ‘Avatar’ were found in bushes at the stoplight at the corner of Lady Musgrave and Trafalgar roads on June 13.

The police had reported that several bloodied stones were found close to the bodies which also had chop wounds.

ENDS

Finally I am still of the opinion that 

As there has to be an affirming environment and LGBTQI specific interventions to address persons growth and development

So may we remember them and all those who have perished for whatever motive. Loss of life in this tragic sense is frightening and so young at that. Check out more archives on homeless on Gay Jamaica Watch

Peace and tolerance.

H

Homeless MSM/Trans youth draw attention in New Kingston

As the public march progressed for the Endometriosis awareness day activities in New Kingston yesterday this was what was captured by a passer-by of some of our homeless/displaced gay/bi and transgender youths by the gully adjacent the old Super Plus Store next to Island Car Rentals, as you may have realised on this and on sister blog Gay Jamaica Watch, GJW the coverage on this particular group and their predecessors has been extensive for the past five years.

Of course the more privileged gay persons and snobs in our community may turn their noses and say the men are an embarrassment to the LGBT community while on the other hand some others (hypocritically so) may say they serve a purpose as they remind every day Jamaicans that gays exist but certainly this would not be the ideal image one would want to go out there. The toss up between public order, decency and survival has been a challenging one for this group as their numbers increase and while myself and others have not forgotten than more powerful advocates and agencies (namely Jamaica AIDS Support and JFLAG) turned their backs on this set of persons for many years (the closure of the Safe House pilot 2009 comes to mind) more could have been done if there was real interest in seeing a solution enacted to address this, instead we are left with images like this repeatedly.

It was earlier this month I blogged on GJW the following: New Kingston homeless MSM raided again by police a story that almost went unreported if it weren't for vigilant persons, the announced Dwayne's House homeless idea is still in the works as the men continue to occupy the gully.

The actual gully some years ago prior to its occupation now fully by the men as before it had the occasional substance users and female commercial sex workers therein.

Some of the comments from Facebook about the initial photo above make for disturbing feelings such as:

Suffice it to say that this issue needs to be addressed fully not by some half hearted half way house or nice public relations from guilty privileged gay advocates who do not want to get their hands dirty but are more about telling the world what they are doing than actually helping.

the previous Jamaica AIDS Support for Life office site (Upper Musgrave Avenue) where the Safe House pilot sat and was closed: Homeless MSM to feel the pinch as JASL issues ultimatum December 2009 where it all started downhill.

also see:
The toss up between MSM homelessness & public order makes news again

Shelter Coming For Homeless Gays reports the Gleaner

Kingston’s Homeless MSM challenges scream for proper attention

Unruly gays worry store owners ...........................

Homeless MSM in New Kingston arrested in raid for stolen goods

'Don't come back here' - Maxfield residents warn gay man after publicized eviction

The Safe House Background

Homeless impatient with agencies over slow progress of promised shelter

As for government shelters the previous Jamaica Labour Party, JLP administration had designated the old health centre on Upper King Street nearing the York Park fire station as a future shelter but is still unoccupied, I took some photos recently of the building now over grown with shrubbery and used by animals from nearby Flethcer's Land and possibly other persons as a garbage dump.

As this post was being prepared there was an all day session for general homeless persons at the Marie Atkins shelter on Hanover Street where food, blood sugar tests and other personal grooming stuff were being offered, some of the guys were encouraged to attend to make use of that event by the National Council on Drug Abuse, NCDA, I hope they did, their counterparts in St Catherine who are in the weed whacking project are still there rotating the machines and trying to earn some income from landscaping in certain communities. 

Others who are not there in the gully by on the mend while still displaced somewhat have benefited from a scholarship program by a group named Colour Pink where they are pursuing a catering course while also earning valuable information via my group Aphrodite's PRIDE Jamaica in the soon to be concluded phase one Entrepreneurship Training which commenced in August of last year funded by the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office, FCO.

More solutions are being formulated on my and that of the APJ's part while we seek funding and some work is also being done on GLBTQ Jamaica's part but we need funding support. The numbers reached by these efforts by small groups is a drop in the bucket compared to the magnitude of the problem which is islandwide.

Peace and tolerance

H

JFLAG at its 15 Anniversary of the Struggle on Human Rights Day..................

Jamaica has a long and complex history of LGBT human rights advocacy from the 1970s with the Gay Freedom Movement.

Back then, there were more pockets of tolerance and gay social spaces in Jamaica; visible gay clubs such as NS, Marshalls, The Closet, and Entourage all based in Kingston. More recently we’ve had The Loft, and Oasis as well as Heaven which is still in operation.

Regrettably, beginning in the late 1980s, things began to change. People were being targeted, beaten and killed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Consequently, the LGBT community became imprisoned by fear, discrimination and violence.

Fifteen years ago, some concerned Jamaicans came together to establish what we now know as J-FLAG. On Human Rights Day - December 10, 1998 - J-FLAG was launched to ‘engage in initiatives that would foster the acceptance and enrichment of the lives of same-gender loving persons who have been, and continue to be an integral part of society’. Jamaica is better because of their vision.

When J-FLAG was launched, the idea of protection from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity seemed foreign, but it was important to confront laws and policies that were, and continue to be detrimental to the dignity of LGBT Jamaicans.

Today, we celebrate fifteen wonderful years of advocacy for LGBT people. I thank everyone, including LGBT community members, our partners, donors, allies and policymakers who have helped in promoting the rights of LGBT Jamaicans. I pay tribute to the founders who so desperately wanted to ensure Jamaicans like me could claim our full citizenship and not be mistreated because of who we love.

It is an honour for me to be part of such a proud history, and I am hopeful that better days are ahead. Already, there is an unprecedented lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ‘buggery law’ and many LGBT people are boldly confronting homophobia. This year, we witnessed the establishment of three new LGBT organisations, namely Quality of Citizenship Jamaica (QCJ) - a lesbian and bisexual women’s organisation, the Jamaica Association of Gays and Lesbians Abroad (JAGLA), and Dwayne's House - working to create a shelter for homeless LGBT youth.

However, despite these strides by the community, there are still many challenges. Some LGBT people still do not have a place to sleep at nights. Children are still being thrown out of their homes because they are gay or lesbian, while some of them hide from school to avoid being bullied, and others contemplate suicide to end the harassment they face. Transgender Jamaicans are still being treated as outcasts. People are still being beaten for being LGBT and many of us still live in great fear for our lives and that of our loved ones. The murder of 16 year old Dwayne Jones in St James in July 2013, who wanted to become a teacher or entertainment coordinator, is evidence of how difficult it is for many of us.

It is for these reasons that we must all work together to create a peaceful and inclusive society for all Jamaicans. We must provide more opportunities to learn about human rights and foster greater respect among all of us, regardless of our differences.

No Jamaican should feel inferior, powerless or invisible because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is only with respect and embracing our common humanity that Jamaica can be a safe, cohesive and just society. Together, we can put aside the grievances that lead to prejudice, inequality, crime, violence and intolerance, to build Jamaica land we love.

Dane Lewis, Executive Director

(876) 875 2328 /(876) 754 2130

ENDS

Also see a list of top 10 accomplishments: HERE and below is my podcast on the matter, congrats indeed but there is much to do despite the strong differences of opinions as to the way forward. Hopefully the goals will be achieved on a sound ethical foundation of advocacy and not leaving us viewed as oppressors or lying our way to achieving our full rights and recognition.

Peace and tolerance

H