Vagrants: Untold stories from the streets

By Rupa Seenaraine

In recent years, Guyana’s streets and thoroughfares have witnessed an increase in vagrant presence, especially key areas of the capital city Georgetown.

 

From teens to pensioners, these individuals often circle around several locations until they find a place where they can rest, and solicit food, money or other items.
After some time, many have faded in society’s awareness, so that they remain forgotten and sometimes, their stories untold. In every case, there are details which differentiate them from each other.
The Sunday Times Magazine took to the streets, on Thursday last, where stories surfaced of many persons leaving their satisfactory lives to take beatings from the rain and others unfortunate to have a place to call home.
Many were cases of abandonment among the elderly population while others resorted to vagabonding because of some disability that disenfranchised them from entering the world of employment.

This was not the same for 53-year-old Ulus White, who once had a job and a stable life. Sharing his story with this publication, the elderly man sat at his usual spot at Regent and Light Streets while reflecting on his life.
Once a security guard for most of his life, White had even owned his own home at Grove on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD). Originally from Berbice, the man said he had that profession for most of his life, but took to the streets in 2014 after losing his job multiple times. He said there was no definite possibility of regaining stable employment at another firm after exhausting all avenues.

“I belong to Berbice and I used to live in Grove, but all of this is out of frustration make I does got to be out here, you know. I had to leave most of my jobs and most of my life, I was a security guard. Out here, I certain to get a meal or so, but you can’t really depend on people to come,” he expressed.

 

Now, he permanently stays at the location with only a haversack that holds his most valuable items. The man said he gets enough money to obtain two square meals per day and his brother resides at the house where he once lived. White says he has no other immediate family and does not see himself rebounding from his current situation.
On the other hand, there is 22-year-old Thomas (only name provided to conceal identity), who has not been on the streets for that long. His childhood was spent in foster care, after being rescued from an abusive home.
After being released from the system, he noted that there was nowhere to go. A distant aunt took him in for some time, but insisted that he leave after he could not find a job. Now, he walks around the city to find food or any small change which can get him food.Thomas said because the system was overwhelmed, he could not access proper education and be afforded the opportunity to sit his examinations. While on the streets, he is somehow looking to change his luck by gaining a job. Present, some vendors at the Bourda Market would give him a job or two to transport their produce around the area.
“As long as people trust you, they would give you any small work around, so I just want to get something big ’cause it’s not nice to be out there, but because of the situation…,” he shared.
The Project Restore Guyana was a multi-disciplinary task force that was set up by Government back in 2016 to address, among other social ills, the welfare management of the homeless and addicted, but financial constraints compelled the body to shelve plans for vagrant removal.
Head of the Secretariat of the task force, Dr Sewnath Ponalall had told Guyana Times back then that the Project was faced with financial and human resources challenges in continuing its relocation programme. Dr Ponalall had observed that the biggest challenge was finding a building to assess the mental and physical status of vagrants to determine where and how to place them, whether it was in a hospital or a home.