Government is pressing ahead with its accommodation for the homeless project in West Coast Berbice.

Earlier this week, a newspaper advertisement by the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, disclosed that invitation for bids for the US$2M project at Onverwagt is being invited from qualified contractors.

Also disclosed by this medium was a pre-bid meeting to be held Friday August 21st at 10:00h in the boardroom of the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary/Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) to be followed by a site inspection shortly after.

Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon had announced in June that establishment of the facility was being done in keeping with Government’s mandate to provide safety, medical and material support to destitute and homeless persons.

The project is Government funded and is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security led by Minister Priya Manickchand-Murli.

Transport and Hydraulics Minister Mr. Robeson Benn submitted to Cabinet the report on the designs, quantities, estimates and the tender documents for its construction shortly after the announcement was made in June.

The project is additional to the shelter at East La Penitence and will be located in an area near to the MMA/ADA Complex.

The hospice will include dormitory style arrangements and will accommodate well over 100 persons, both male and female, in separate sections.

It will have facilities for recreation, medical care and physical work-related activities, such as agricultural production.

Dr Luncheon said that the decision to take up residence there will be made by the street dwellers themselves, because the shelter is not conceived as a prison and the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security will not have a mandate to restrict their movement in or out.

“I suspect that persons could voluntarily assign themselves to the home and seek admission. So, I could see there will, probably, be a number of different ways in which a homeless person can get in,” he said then.

Bidding by contractors closes on September 1.