The Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society says some people are deliberately claiming to be homeless because of the benefits they can recieve like three free meals a day and Welfare Assistance.

The society head Kemar Saffrey says though only a few have done this, it is a disturbing trend which he intends to combat as it may detract from the reality of increased homelessness.

Mr. Saffrey says his organisation was seeing two to three new cases a week, on average, of genuine homelessness.

But he says some weeks, they see as many as five new cases.

He says several of these individuals were attributing their plight to losing their job – from either the public or private sectors.

Mr. Saffrey says much of this destitution was occurring because when some people were laid-off, they were no longer able to pay rent.

He says also, some people may be forced out, or asked to leave their family-occupied home because of conflict with relatives for being unable to contribute to its upkeep like before.