“We Have, in Writing, 350 Names”: The Missionaries of the Poor Say They Have No Beds Left for Jamaica’s Homeless

• Father Richard Ho Lung said the Missionaries of the Poor has more than 350 written requests for shelter
• Its seven homes are full, and about 10 calls a day ask for places
• Government figures put Jamaica’s homeless population above 3,000
• A $115 million fundraiser targets the roof of the Bethlehem home

The Missionaries of the Poor has been sheltering Jamaica’s most abandoned people since Father Richard Ho Lung founded it in 1981. In February 2025, he told the Jamaica Observer that it had run out of room.

“We have, in writing, 350 names, but there’s more than that,” he said. “People who are homeless and destitute, they have nowhere to go for help.” The order runs seven homes across Jamaica, and all were at capacity. It was getting about 10 phone calls a day asking for places, with referrals from hospitals, the police and children’s services.

The cases were stark. The paper reported that the order had recently taken in a young woman with an intellectual disability. She was five months pregnant, had been raped and could not speak, and she was looking for somewhere to stay. Children were also being referred by hospitals.

The Government’s own figures showed the scale of the problem. In October 2024, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie reported more than 3,000 homeless people in Jamaica, many of whom had families but had been abandoned. The State runs drop-in centres, night shelters in Kingston and transitional facilities in several parishes, but the Observer’s report pointed to a gap between those services and demand.

The buildings themselves need money. The Father Ho Lung and Friends Foundation was using the Sagicor Sigma 5K Run/Walk to raise $115 million to repair the roof at Bethlehem, the downtown Kingston apostolate for children with disabilities.

The story shows how much of Jamaica’s safety net for the destitute rests on church-run property, and how exposed it is when there are no more beds. For churches that hold land and buildings, it raises the question of whether some of those assets could shelter people. For the diaspora, it is a reminder that supporting a roof, a bed or a building can matter as much as a food parcel.

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