THE shelter for the rehabilitation and reintegration of the homeless located at Onverwagt is to be named after Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chavez in recognition and appreciation of his generosity in financing the facility.

The homeless shelter on the West Coast of Berbice in Region 5 will be commissioned on May 6, according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, speaking at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing on Thursday at the Office of the President, New Garden Street, Georgetown.
Dr. Luncheon also announced that the government of Guyana will be naming the shelter after the Venezuelan leader who passed away on March 5, 2013 after battling cancer for two years.
The naming of the shelter after Chavez, Dr Luncheon added, will be Guyana’s way of honouring the very influential South American leader. While the formal title of the facility will be the “Shelter for Rehabilitation and Reintegration”, Chavez’s name will still be featured.
The shelter will provide a wide range of services to its residents with the aim of enabling them to be usefully reintegrated into the wider society.
Asked about the residents of the shelter, Dr. Luncheon stated that the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security will shuttle the homeless to the Region 5 facility, while those currently housed at the Night Shelter in Georgetown will also be taken to the new multimillion dollar shelter.
It was pointed out that the Night Shelter in the city was built to provide a similar service as the one to be opened at Onverwagt, but the night shelter was never meant to be a permanent arrangement as the government had long been eyeing the establishment of a more permanent facility.
At present the shelter at Onverwagt will be expected to accommodate more than 150 residents.

Getting persons off the street
Dr Luncheon acknowledged that getting persons off the street and up to the facility is “not going to be a walk in the park.” He noted that at present there are systems being put in place to ensure that residents at the shelter will not feel the urge to return to the streets.
At the moment the Ministry of Human Services is examining the annual recurring budget for the administration of the facility, which takes into consideration expenses for staffing.
Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Juan Edghill and Minister of Human Services and Social Security Jennifer Webster who visited the shelter in September last year, along with Permanent Secretary Lauren Baird, Director of Social Services Whensworth Tanner, national engineer Walter Willis and project director Radesh Rameshwear, were disappointed at the pace at which work was being executed at the facility.
Eventually after repeated warnings the Ministry of Human Services had to apply liquidated damages against the firm and the unfinished works were awarded to another contractor whose performance has been impressive, enabling the completion of the homeless shelter which is to be commissioned on May 6.