City Hands Out Masks to Hamilton’s Unsheltered Population

Hamilton – April 16th, 2021

The City of Hamilton and the Department of Health have teamed up to provide face masks for Bermuda’s homeless population, to protect against the spread of COVID-19.

2000 masks were provided to the City by the Department of Health following feedback from City employees moving about Hamilton who observed members of the unsheltered population not wearing masks.

The City has already started to distribute the masks among Hamilton’s unsheltered population, churches and City feeding programmes, and plans to continue the distribution in the coming weeks and months.

“The City has been working hard with various stakeholders from the across the community to address issues involving the homeless population and provide tangible solutions and assistance to this group,” said City of Hamilton Chief Executive Officer Dwayne Caines. “We recognize that homelessness and vagrancy is a complicated issue that has many layers and that addressing the issues will require the community to come together to do their part.

“By way of an update in this regard, I can confirm that the City has engaged a private company to conduct a thorough assessment of homelessness in Bermuda. I will provide a further update on this in the coming weeks.

“The City of Hamilton remains committed in working with businesses, governmental agencies and the charitable sector to identify how we can effectively and efficiently manage homelessness in the City.”

Director of the Department of Health David Kendell said, “The Department of Health is pleased to partner with the City of Hamilton to provide protective masks for this vulnerable population. Along this vein, the Ministry of Health is actively looking to implement a plan to provide COVID-19 testing for the unsheltered population on a regular basis.”

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