FREEPORT, Grand Bahama - Controversial plans to change the Island Palm Hotel into a shelter for the homeless have been shelved by the government, Prime Minister Perry Christie told The Freeport News yesterday.
Instead, Christie said the building will be used for "administrative offices".
Controversy erupted following Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis' announcement that the government was considering using the hotel as a shelter for homeless people.
Christie was in Freeport yesterday for the official launch of Urban Renewal 2.0. He revealed the government's plans for Island Palm after being questioned about it by The Freeport News.
"I am advised by the minister responsible [for Grand Bahama] Dr. Michael Darville that he proposes to use the offices as administrative offices and not as a home, and that in point of fact, it is a positive response to all of the controversy."
The prime minister noted that in this instance, the government took its queue from the response the plan had received from Grand Bahamians.
"We obviously want programs to do with helping people to work and if those programs are going to work, we need to enlist the support of people, so if we take a step that is regarded as controversial we will review that step as we have with that," Christie said.
He noted that in regard to using the facility as a shelter, Dr. Darville went with the public.
"If one wants to say that he listened and he heard, one can say that and he is responding positively," Christie said.
He noted, however, that Dr. Darville shared that the purchase of the building for the purposes of expanding the Rand Memorial Hospital reflected a bad judgment on the part of the former Free National Movement (FNM) government, as it has to be demolished.
"For the purposes of I think temporary accommodation, it is going to be used as administrative offices," said Christie.

Since Davis revealed the government's plan for the resort, purchased at a cost of $1.9 million for the expansion of the Rand Memorial Hospital, social media websites and residents across the island have expressed strong opinions about what the government had proposed.

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