Jamaica: help HIV homeless

Jamaica’s leading HIV/AIDS NGO has urged the Government to provide housing for the increasing number of HIV positive and gay homeless men in the country.

Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL) chairman Ian McKnight called for the Government to adopt a housing plan which catered to men who have sex with men (MSM) in the New Kingston district of the Jamaican capital, Kingston.

McKnight said that, as it was currently resourced, JASL could “only bite off a chewable piece of the whole pie” in terms of housing and financial support for people with AIDS.

He asked that government work to overcome Jamaican society’s conservative views towards homosexuality and provide equal “amenities that government has an obligation to provide … to those ostracised from mainstream society.”

JASL executive director Kandasi Levermore warned the Government that action was needed to support men with HIV as “a growing community … at increased risk”.

Gay men in Jamaica are often rejected by their families and communities, which in turn leads to homelessness.

Current HIV/AIDS funding by the Jamaican Government is geared mainly towards clinical help and Levermore urged that additional money be directed towards housing support.

“Demands are more than the supply, especially with the MSM homeless community,” Levermore said, “We are not able to give them … all that they are asking.”