The Office of the Attorney General of Guam says it is ready to start the second phase of the homeless relocation initiative, pending the green light from the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.
It has been more than a month since the Homeless Relocation Initiative started in Harmon, across the Micronesia Mall in Dededo. The effort was launched in partnership with the Office of the Attorney General of Guam, Mayors’ Council of Guam, and the Office of the Governor of Guam to address the island’s homeless problem.
Attorney General Douglas Moylan told the Pacific News Center that based on a forensic review of it, it accomplished what the joint team was intended to do.
“It fulfilled the operational requirements that we had set out and what we had hoped to accomplish and then how we addressed the people that were there,” said Moylan. “We took them to the flea market site with Dededo Mayor Melissa Savares where we had all the social services providers there, wrap around services and made sure that a job opportunity was presented to them, allowed them to bridge from being in an homeless situation to getting the immediate social services that they needed and getting them a place to stay and put them on track to get a job.”
According to the Guam Homeless Coalition, there are 790 people experiencing homelessness on the island, and 92 households with children. About 52.66% of the homeless population are CHamorus.
Pending the lieutenant governor’s approval, the initiative is ready to pick back up, according to Moylan.
“The lieutenant governor is going to let us know when we are going to meet and start working on our next operation in order to clear these homeless encampments and then how we are going to deal with those people who wish to have help,” he said. “Our office, and the Mayors’ Council of Guam, we are waiting on the Lieutenant Governor’s go ahead on when the next homeless initiative is going to be started.”
PNC reached out to Adelup for comment and has yet to receive a response as of news time.
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