Vagrants being kicked out of the City of Hamilton should be found suitable shelter, Chamber of Commerce president Buddy Rego said yesterday.Mr Rego welcomed plans to improve safety by placing security patrol officers on the beat, following months of complaints about passers-by being intimidated by growing numbers of people sleeping rough.But he stressed the crackdown on City vagrants should not simply mean the problem is sent elsewhere.“Anything that can be done to make Hamilton safer is a good thing and businesses will welcome the news the problem of vagrants is going to be cleaned up,” Mr Rego told The Royal Gazette.“But this is not about displacement. If we just remove them from one spot, they will just go somewhere else.“Begging and sleeping on the sidewalk is a public nuisance. But there really ought to be a social remedy to that.”Noting the growing number of empty houses on the Island, Mr Rego said: “We probably have more vagrants than people looking for housing at the moment.“Given that we have more empty houses in Bermuda than takers, the cure could be available to us. How many vagrants are there? If it’s two dozen, we should be able to take them.“These are people who are not going to be employed at any point soon so affordable housing is not an option for them.“I don’t know the answer, but I think there needs to be a place for them to go.”The Corporation of Hamilton pledged to target vagrants earlier this year, amid concerns growing numbers of tourists are being aggressively asked for cash in the City, and complaints over sleeping rough in shop doorways.Yesterday, The Royal Gazette reported the Corporation has teamed up with Security Associates Limited to put security patrol officers on the beat before the end of this month.As well as vagrants, the officers aim to help residents and workers feel more comfortable in the City, with Corporation chief operating officer Ed Benevides saying police have been unable to assign sufficient resources.City car parks, Queen Elizabeth II Park and Point Pleasant Park have been identified as key trouble spots.Mr Rego said yesterday: “Anything that gives the shoppers in the city a sense of security is obviously going to be welcomed.“This is Bermuda in 2012 and the more security support we can get, the better.”