known as "car world'', the Salvation Army claimed yesterday.

It was not true that as many as a dozen homeless folk were sleeping at "car world'' -- a few feet from the Salvation Army's North Street night shelter, Maj. Gilbert St. Onge said.

He said only three or four people regularly slept at "car world''. Health Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness, who came out in defence of the shelter last week, had also disputed that a dozen or so people slept there.

Maj. St. Onge was responding to comments made to The Royal Gazette last week by four homeless people sleeping in abandoned cars at "car world''. They had all been patients of St. Brendan's psychiatric hospital.

They slept at "car world'' because they did not like the strict rules of the shelter and had nowhere else to go as they could not hold down steady jobs.

One homeless man, Mr. Carlton Matthews, went as far as to call the shelter a "prison''. Residents had to sit down to dinner at 5 p.m., be in bed at 11 p.m. and out the door by 9 a.m. the next day, he said.

The existence of "car world'' was revealed by Community Service Team (CST) leader Mr. Jeremy Lodge during Clinical Social Work Week. He had said about a dozen homeless people were sleeping at the overgrown lot.

But Maj St. Onge said no more than four people slept there and they did so because they chose to.

"It is true, though, that ten or a dozen people `hang out' around the dumped cars during the day,'' Maj. St. Onge said.

He further claimed the night shelter's rules "were only a little harder to follow than the rules by which families maintain order in their homes''.

"Those rules keep the society of the shelter together. We simply cannot run such an organisation as if it were a hotel.'' Maj. St. Onge added that the four people spoken to did not all sleep at "car world'' as they had claimed, "One person said he was asked to leave the Salvation Army shelter because he had been swearing. In fact, he was asked to leave because of other considerably, less appropriate behaviour,'' the major said. "The woman mentioned has a room at the shelter and keeps her belongings there. Very often, she will sleep in a car on the dump, but that is because she wants to, not because there is nowhere else for her to go.

"Another gentleman mentioned also lives at the shelter and keeps his belongings there. He goes to the car area during the day. And the fourth person quoted sleeps in a car because apparently he prefers that way of living. He has been offered a bed in the shelter, but has declined.'' Mr. Edness had said Social Services and the Salvation Army had tried "over and over'' to help the residents of "car world''. But many of them had drug or alcohol problems and did not want help. "All we can do is keep trying,'' he had said.

Mr. Edness said Government was, in fact, currently negotiating for a building to turn into a sort of "club'' for the homeless.

And Maj. St. Onge said a second homeless shelter was under construction and should be completed sometime in May. However, it would only be a night shelter.

He said the Army recognised the need for a day facility for the homeless and wanted to help those who were sleeping "in fields, cars and other less than the norm'' places.

`CAR WORLD' RESIDENT -- Mr. William Wilson, sits in the musty-smelling van which he calls home. He is one of several homeless folk who sleep in abandoned vehicles at "car world''.