A $5 Million Makeover for a Shelter That Has Housed Kingston’s Homeless Since 1984

• The Sandals Foundation gave $5 million to upgrade the Missionaries of the Poor’s Faith Centre
• The centre houses about 80 homeless people from Kingston and St Andrew
• Work covers dormitories, tiling and structural improvements
• Residents receive meals, nursing care and a safe place to sleep

The Faith Centre, run by the Missionaries of the Poor, has been taking in homeless people from Kingston and St Andrew since 1984. In November 2024 the order got a $5 million donation from the Sandals Foundation to modernise the building, the Jamaica Observer reported.

The centre gives refuge to about 80 homeless people. Residents get nutritious meals, free medical care from a certified nurse and a safe place to sleep. The donation was to pay for labour and materials to make better use of the dormitories, tile the dormitories and bathrooms, and carry out structural improvements for comfort and safety. The work was expected to be finished by the end of the year.

“We recognise the incredible work Missionaries of the Poor has been doing to provide homes filled with love, nourishment, and care,” said Heidi Clarke, executive director of the Sandals Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts International. Father Maximo Medina of the Missionaries of the Poor said: “This support will bring much-needed comfort and dignity to our residents.”

Brothers Yuman Ende and Ephrem Dung of the order, along with Sandals Foundation operations director Karen Zacca, were also involved in the handover.

The handover came as the upgrades were scheduled to be completed by year-end, giving residents safer, more hygienic sleeping and washing areas in a building that has been in continuous use for four decades.

The donation points to an unglamorous fact about faith-run shelters in Jamaica: the buildings age just like everyone else’s. Dormitories and bathrooms that have served residents for four decades need tiling, plumbing and structural work, and religious orders living on donations rarely have a maintenance budget to match. For corporate donors, the diaspora and churches abroad looking for a concrete way to help Kingston’s homeless, paying for a shelter’s upkeep keeps beds open for decades. It is often a better use of money than a one-off meal, and it protects a property that already does what a new building would take years to deliver.

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