evict eight residents living in temporary accommodation at the Woodshop Plus site in St. George's.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said the organisers had breached the lease by allowing people to live on the site where ex-convicts had been rehabilated prior to the programme's recent suspension.

But founder of Woodshop Plus Cleveland Simmons is refusing to budge.

He vowed: "This isn't right, they had better come to a compromise.

"I am not going to allow them to close this up and not have a roof over their heads.

"I will not allow anyone not to have a suitable place, I would go to jail.'' Mr. Scott said: "I hope he changes his mind, that certainly would not help him or anyone who follows his suggestion.'' Leroy Bean, 50, has been staying in a shower area for the last nine months because he can't find affordable accommodation.

He said: "I'll just be out on the street. They closed the job down and now they want to throw us out on the street.

"It's bad enough being evicted but when you get evicted from a shower? That's terrible.'' Dewey Durrant, 59, said he had kept a clean record for the last four years because of the programme.

He feared if he was booted out of his makeshift accommodation he would go back to a life of crime.

He said: "The Woodshop is the only thing that has kept me out of prison.

"I have nowhere to stay, that's going to make me go different but I don't want to go back to jail.'' Acting Health and Social Services Minister Milton Scott said he had been given too little time to find homes for the evicted Woodshop Residents.

He said: "The Salvation Army facility is available as it is for anyone who is temporarily without shelter.'' Sen. Scott added that finding suitable accommodation for older males was tough. He said: "There is just not that many houses available for them.'' Mr. Simmons said the Government was taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Responding to allegations of drug taking at the site he said: "When drugs are found in Casemates or Westgate do they close it down or fire the administration? No, they find ways to deal with it.

"But they want to close us down.'' However he admitted he had an ongoing drugs problem.

He said: "I indulge but I do not deal in drugs. Nobody here deals in drugs.

"Whatever I do in my personal life is my business. I have a problem but I have learned to manage it.'' Mr. Simmons said there had only been one complaint in three years the Woodshop Plus scheme has been at the Military Road site.

"I fought one to one with the drug pushers to stop them coming on the facility. When we came here it was drug-infested.'' He said the programme was too valuable to lose.

He said: "We have had 68 people come through this -- only eight have gone back to prison -five of those were for not paying child support. The concept has worked.

"Because there was nowhere for them to stay I made it possible for them to stay here.

"They should give us some credit. We have everybody through here -- murderers, rapists, handbag snatchers, they've grown but to throw them out onto the street, I won't accept it.'' Woodshop eviction But Works Minister Alex Scott said: "Whether or not it was successful the programme has ceased to exist, there is no chief executive.'' He said: "We are not being punitive or unreasonable.'' Mr. Scott said his department had already helped one Woodshop Plus resident move their stuff into storage and would help others who cooperated with the eviction to find places to stay.

He added the Government would have been attacked if it had let people carry on living in shower rooms.

The Woodshop's newly-appointed on-site administrator Abdul-Moja said the Government had long-known that people were being temporarily housed at the site.

And he said it had given tacit approval because social assistance had been sending cheques to one of the programme's clients who was living at the premises.

He said the Government had complained about illegal activity, believed to be drug taking, but he said it had never happened actually on the site.

He added: "Do you throw the baby out with the bath water? Let's say a church minister was having an affair with one of its members do you close the church down? Or do you get a new minister?'' "I think the church programme is more important than the minister.'' "The buck stops at the top but the programme can speak for itself.'' He said the Government should have acted earlier.