By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

FOR the last several days, 48-year-old Tharon Bethel has slept on a small piece of cardboard on the stoop of a Shirley Street liquor store.

When The Tribune encountered him on Friday night just before curfew, the father-of-one had just finished looking for food in the Bay Street area.

He came back to the cardboard he’d left a few hours before and sat there gazing into the street.

Despite his circumstances, he was happy to talk about the issues he’s been facing.

Mr Bethel said he’s comfortable sleeping at the liquor store because it is a place where no one bothers him.

But it’s also a harsh reminder that he’s been homeless for a long time and he knows he can’t continue to sleep there.

Mr Bethel will be 49 on March 31 and told The Tribune he wants to find a permanent job that will allow him to afford food and pay rent at a small efficiency before his birthday.

If this happens, Mr Bethel said he also wants to relocate his son from Freeport to Nassau to live with him.

However, he has no cellphone so he can’t receive or make calls.

The Grand Bahama native only has a small bag of belongings so he will be starting his life all over again, he said.

He doesn’t mind though, because then it would mean he finally has somewhere to lay his head at night that provides the shelter of four walls and a bathroom.

Before he began sleeping outside the liquor store, Mr Bethel said he used to sleep “somewhere safe” at the nearby dock.

Prior to that he rented a small apartment but was unable to pay rent after odd jobs slowed to a halt due to Hurricane Dorian and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a long story but this where I just end up,” he said when asked how he came to live on the street. “I be all about in a nice safe spot, but before here I was by the dock and I used to live in Freeport.

“I had a lil’ place over here but it went down because I couldn’t keep up with the rent so I’m around now but looking to try make things lil’ better. I have to try and get a job and get a lil’ place to stay.

“Right now, finding food is a struggle and sometimes I go over there to Princess Margaret Hospital and they feed me over there. Other times, ya know, I ask people to wash their cars for money so I can buy something.”

Mr Bethel says before he fell on hard times, he got jobs as a painter, did a little carpentry, but mainly was paid as a landscaper.

“I’ll do any lil’ thing to help me get somewhere to live and a way to feed myself.”