One of the issues that is not only neglected but rarely discussed are Cayman’s homeless.

It was brought HOME to me when one of our banks, not surprisingly, won their case to foreclose on one of their customers for being behind in his payment of only CI$3,000! If this was in the UK the bank would not have been able to do this. It was also just after Christmas and certainly smacked of the Absentee Landowners who were prevalent in the 1800-1900 in England and particular Scotland and Ireland. 80% of the population owned only 19% of the land. There was no goodwill to be had then, even at Christmas.

Evictions during this time was common place and, even worse, if you made any improvements to the home you were living in the more money the owner of the land could collect.

This is why people moved to the towns and big cities.

The plight of people did not matter and this hasn’t changed in the 21st century here in the Cayman Islands when people are indebted to banks no matter how small.

Wouldn’t we all like to know the correct figure of how many persons here have or are being foreclosed? This should be a mandatory requirement that every bank should be made to disclose and by the figure of the arrears.

The law is on their side and this was spelled out by the Judge who presided on the aforementioned foreclosure case. He warnedg people to read the small print before signing your mortgage documents.

Unless the law is changed banks will continue foreclosing and people will become homeless, a situation government does not want to admit we have here. If one looks at the majority of the comments placed on media websites when this situation is even aired, there is little sympathy for the victim.

A local businessman/activist George Ebanks said it well in 2015, when homelessness was raised then. He said, “Homelessness and social decay always and inevitably leads to entrenched crime and drug abuse and other social ills. This issue must be a national priority! Once crime becomes entrenched in any society; society overall is the ultimate loser.”

In 2015 government had no records of anyone being homeless. There was no policy on place to even produce such figures. Little has changed since.

Crimes are being committed by more and more young persons, and large numbers of them have no permanent homes. As a result they cannot make bail for even small crimes and they are placed in jail. At least it is a shelter.

This was raised last Saturday at a Men’s Meeting I attended where a new pastor to Cayman said he was horrified to see young and even older persons sleeping on the beach. When he inquired about it he found the practice was becoming more common.

This almost total neglect here to this increasing problem of homelessness is a blot on our landscape, and when our banks are heartlessly contributing to this situation with the law on their side, something must be done now. Crime is going to increase at such a speed it will affect our largest industry – tourism.

This neglect by not only government, but society in general and our churches who are totally silent on the matter, must not continue. It will be at our peril.

I leave you with two related stories and this statement from the Human Rights Commission concerning the lack of accurate statistics on homelessness in the Cayman Islands:

“The Commission encourages the government to take steps to remedy this situation as a matter of priority. As the Commission stated during the debate surrounding a minimum wage in the Cayman Islands, whilst these goals are not straightforward to achieve, the government must strive to find effective remedies to safeguard the rights of those persons identified as vulnerable, whether as a result of their financial situation or otherwise.”

The year this statement was made – 2015!

In July 2017 our police force went after a group of squatters illegally occupying premises after complaints. The police said a small amount of drugs were found. If the police admit it was small it really was SMALL! Three men, aged 63, 53 and 24, and two woman, aged 40 and 24, were arrested. Where are they sleeping now? Doesn’t anyone care?

A fire in Spotts, Newlands, destroyed a house which left five people homeless in September 2017.

Thankfully, I do not know what it is to be homeless. I thank God for that and pray it does not happen to anyone reading this.

We may not be homeless but we are not helpless to do something about it.