Vagrants getting Lazier

PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY SAFIYYAH MOHAMMED AT TAMARINDQUARE,POS 

DATE TAKEN : 28/02/2015

    “Nowayrians” is a local term for people who have nowhere to live and no one to care for them, according to Dr L Trevor Grant, author of the book The Nowayrians: Homelessness in Trinidad and Tobago. Grant, who has a doctoral degree in Social Welfare, collected data and research from 1996 to 2007 by sitting down with the homeless and learning about their lifestyles particularly in Tamarind Square — “the capital of homelessness in Trinidad”.

    It is surprising to learn that the homeless population changes every ten years. I found out that the homeless ten years ago are different in terms of behaviour, mannerisms and lifestyles than they are now. The homeless that you see literally sleeping on the pavement in the day, you did not have that ten years ago. That was reserved for the night.The homeless in the ’90s were hustlers, you have a small minority now that are hustlers but the majority of them just lie, sit and wait for charity.

    According to research, there are at least 2,000 homeless persons in the country with 88 percent from Trinidad. Eighty six percent of that are males which mean 14 percent are females and that is because women cannot live on the streets because of their monthly cycle.Grant randomly selected 50 homeless persons for the study and found that 26 percent worked as labourers, ten percent as clerks/teachers and 64 percent had occupations ranging from painters, fishermen and security. Thirty-six percent participated in sexual activities at various times, eight percent were not involved in sexual activities and 54 percent did not have sex often. Sixty-three percent of the homeless used alcohol (rum, beer and bay rum), 21 percent used drugs and 16 percent used neither. Grant who has written seven other books believes the current government has failed the homeless terribly and he is not impressed with what they have. 

Reference:

Article by DARCEL CHOY Sunday, March 23 2008- http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,75537.html