By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

SENATOR Maxine Seymour has blasted the government for what she called the “continued neglect” of the Nazareth Centre in Millennium Gardens, saying the facility remains abandoned nearly two years after the Catholic Church ended its partnership with the state.

Mrs Seymour said the site is unsafe, overgrown, incomplete, and empty, calling it a shameful derelict property.

“This has dragged on far too long. Our children deserve stability, not indefinite displacement and neglect. The Nazareth Centre must be restored to full operation with urgency, transparency, and accountability. Our children matter. Put them first. Provide answers now,” she said in a statement.

She demanded clarity on what work has been completed at the facility, when it will be finished, and which organisation has been chosen to manage its operations and under what terms. Most pressing, she said, are the conditions under which displaced children are being housed and the safeguards in place to ensure they are not placed in environments resembling correctional or custodial facilities.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese ran the Nazareth Centre, one of the Department of Social Services’ residential care facilities for children, for more than 20 years before its partnership with the government ended in December 2023. Social Services Minister Myles Laroda said at the time that officials were in discussions with two other groups about the centre’s future.

Chief social worker Juliet Neymour told The Tribune yesterday that the Department of Social Services is still managing the Nazareth Centre. She said the children have been placed in homes such as the Bilney Lane Children’s Home and a property on the Willie Mae Pratt Centre for Girls compound, assuring that these homes are designed for care.

“Bilney Lane we had that open up before we just reopen it just to have the nursery there, because the two areas that we have there, we have the boys and the girls separated, and we didn’t have a facility for the nursery right there,” she said.

She could not confirm the progress of the centre’s renovation.

Mr Laroda did not respond up to press time.