Dear Sir,

The late Nelson Bascome and staff should be commended for the pioneering work they undertook to deal with the issue of homelessness.

I found their report in a desk gathering dust when I was appointed Minister for Social Rehabilitation, and was able to refocus the Progressive Labour Party, restart the engine to gain additional funds, get drawings for a new centre, purchase adjoining land, personally produced a homeless movie entitled Out Among the Ins and established a better working relationship with the Salvation Army.

In fact, upon the closure of the Bishop Spencer School, I was the first in line to get it for a shelter — and when it was condemned, I asked for a reassessment. Unfortunately, to date, the One Bermuda Alliance has spoken about homelessness only twice. That’s right, twice.

The Corporation of Hamilton, to its credit, did a lot of work on finding solutions and I bet, at the end of the day, it also ran into the same problem as I did — “human rights”.

Can we ask people to move from their city? Can we take them to a programme in another part of the city if they want to stay on the steps of City Hall? So the problem gets worse.

Every day we just walk by them, hoping they will disappear or die. Shameful. If it is a priority, the Government, corporation and Salvation Army should have long established a tripartite committee led by Richard Smith, whom I personally selected to lead a group of seven — until we were voted out in 2012.

DALE BUTLER