By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

KEMP Road residents yesterday said “they live in constant fear for their lives” because gangs have taken over the “once peaceful community” and turned it into a crime hot spot.

The frustrated locals expressed their concerns during a walkabout in the area with Minister of National Security Dr Bernard Nottage, Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade, Urban Renewal Co-Chairs Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and Algernon Allen, along with church and community leaders.

Dr Nottage said the nearly three-hour-long canvass was aimed at assessing the needs of the residents and then finding the best avenues to address their concerns.

At the end of the event, he told reporters he would propose that the government subsidise certain businesses in the community so they can afford to hire area residents, as a move to lower unemployment.

He said police always knew that gun violence was a major issue in Kemp Road, but he was unaware of the extent, until he spoke one-on-one with residents.

“We set out to look at the conditions in the area and see what the needs of people are, and also to determine what matters to them. For example, the most common complaint was that they had trouble sleeping at night because they heard gunshots all night. That means ... the risk to residents of the area is pretty high. That is more or less what we suspected but we have been able to confirm that,” Dr Nottage said.

“Lots of people are living in housing conditions that are much less than ideal, many of them cannot do anything about it because they either do not own the properties or are not working and so all those things we call root causes of crime are present here.

“But we have a plan. Once we have completed our survey, we will analyse what we have found and we are going to meet with the residents and invite them to talk to us in a meeting so we can work out the things we can do to assist them. Many people are without jobs so we are going to have a consultation with the businesses in the area and try to see if we can get them to assist us by providing jobs for persons and I am going to speak with the government for the government to provide subsidies so that some of the businesses that may not have the economic ability to employ people, will employ them subsidised and train them so they can develop some skills.”

Chester Rolle, a Kemp Road resident for more than ten years, said he has seen his community go from bad to worse “overnight”.

“I need to move, it just is not safe here anymore,” he said.

“This is no longer a good area. You could see all these gunshot holes in my house. I don’t know when half of these got here. People shot up this house last month. They weren’t shooting at me but the fellas running through the yard and this is an everyday thing now. So, no, I do not feel safe. I want to move so bad but I do not have the financial means.”

Another resident, Natasha Williams, said her children now have to play inside because it is just not safe for them to run the yard anymore. She said the solution to crime in Kemp Road is to find jobs for the area’s youth.

“I believe if these boys work they wouldn’t have time to do these negative things. The crime so bad around here most days we have to run inside with our kids in our hands, the children can’t stay safely in the yard and play. They had barbed wire on the wall but the boys cut (that) and so they run this way when the police running after them. Everyone around here have kids and the kids can’t play because we hear gunshots every night and every morning,” Ms Williams said.

Dr Nottage said a job fair will be held in Kemp Road at the end of next week and walkabout also will be carried out in Yellow Elder, Bain and Grants Town and other crime hot spots before the end of the year.