A concerted drive to bring relief to the island’s homeless brought together members of its multidisciplinary team to grapple with the practical issues of getting shelter for the unsheltered.

Denise Carey, the executive director of the charity Home, led members of the Plan to End Homelessness Advisory Panel and Steering Committee on the topic of properties — their availability, their type and what options might best suit clients according to their widely varying circumstances and backgrounds.

Ms Carey said that part of the difficulty was getting a clear picture of the numbers of potential homes available.

In terms of an inventory of Bermuda housing, she said: “We don’t know how many units are occupied versus unoccupied”.

The third of four consultation sessions, attended by Tinée Furbert, the Minister of Youth, Social Development and Seniors, heard that the push to end homelessness was a highly data-driven exercise.

Ms Carey said: “If we have registered 650 people, that’s 650 people who have given feedback.

“We have also tracked their home parishes, so we can tell you which parishes have the greatest need.”

The campaign is aimed at informing the draft plan to end homelessness, with a comprehensive strategic plan expected to be published this April.

Participants at the meeting gave input on defining the problem and the options available.

“What is affordable housing?” Ms Carey asked. “Can you give a dollar figure?

“You can’t. We need to start with creating a definition of affordable housing.”

The campaign was told that it needed to set targets for delivery, and the types of homes that it would aim to bring online per year.

On the question of vacant properties, Ms Carey said that many in the community were under the impression that the Government had a substantial portfolio of properties going unused.

“There are a lot less empty government buildings than you would expect,” she said.

The campaign has also gone “parish by parish to see what properties are available, and has done a filter to identify properties with zero annual rental value, where we have been advised there is no one paying rent.”

Ms Carey said the project had pulled together a multidisciplinary team comprising “pretty much all the organisations that provide housing”, which would be more nimble in dealing with specific cases.

She added: “Instead of making ten phone calls, you can do just one.”

The team has also drafted a “service prioritisation assistance tool” to sort homeless people on criteria ranging from health and substance abuse to self-care, and personal administration and money management, to ensure they could be appropriately place.

A housing plan could go wrong over something as simple as the inability to look after the mattress in rented accommodation.

“The No 2 reason persons are put out of a dwelling is because of conflict with the landlord.”

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A Consultative Draft Plan to End Homelessness in Bermuda.pdf

Ms Carey said that the next and final consultation session is to be held on March 5, where the question would be: “This is where we are now — what do we have to do moving forward?”

• To read the draft Plan to End Homelessness, see Related Media.