The Ministry of Poverty Alleviation confirms that two homeless men who were staying at a bus stop in front of Mobil Service Station along Jerusalem Road in Suva since December last year have been taken to the HART settlement in Nasinu.
Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Poverty Alleviation, Jennifer Poole says these two people are social welfare recipients and this is not the first time they have housed them.
Poole says they will temporarily house them until they find a permanent solution.
She says officials from the Ministry immediately responded after they were notified of the situation.
A concerned citizen had contacted us about the two individuals through the Hands Across Fiji Facebook page which has been launched by Legend FM, FM 96, Navtarang, Radio Sargam, Viti FM, and fijivillage.
Hands Across Fiji Facebook Page connects people who need assistance in their own areas to those wanting to assist them, after the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The concerned citizen had said she and her team normally assist the two men aged 55 and 49 years with meals as they did not have any home or source of income.
They told Legend FM News that they used to sleep outside a building in Toorak but because there were a lot of people sleeping there, they moved to the bus stop along Jerusalem Road.
The 49 year old says he was 8-years-old when his mother passed away and since then he has been sleeping on the streets.
He says he and his mother were renting and after his mother died, he did not have any source of income to pay rent.
The 49-year-old says they do not have any close family members and they have never worked anywhere.
He further says people provide them with meals sometimes and if they do not get anything during the day, they just drink water and sleep.
