THE Salvation Army has been forced to ditch efforts to compile a database of the island’s homeless — because of the “monumental” scale of the problem.The charity began collecting data on the homeless two years ago and hoped that, once more was known about each individual “living rough”, both it and other organisations would be better positioned to direct assistance to the needy.

But after interviewing more than 50 vagrants across the island the incomplete project has now been abandoned.

Community Services worker Lionel Cann said: “The challenge was finding the time to interview all the people we came in contact with — the process is time intensive.

“When we started the survey, it seemed that all was needed were a few more housing units, but, now, the housing situation appears to be monumental.

“While it give us understanding of the needs of the homeless, to continue the survey would take more time than one can give to it. With Government focusing on the homeless, they will be better able to gather numbers and relevant information on the homeless.

“We wanted to get information related to education, work experience, family history, living condition of other family members, addictions, if there was family contact, how long they had been homeless, and where they lived before coming to their present location.

“The aim of the survey was to corroborate the numbers determined by Government and access what it was we could do to help as an organisation.

“We were able to interview 50 people in the western end of the island but this is no indication of the number of homeless we have located throughout the island.

“Interviews had to be completed on weekends or in the evenings when the homeless were more likely to be around. This was a real challenge and some were not open to answering questions.”