The new Sophia Drop-In Centre at Block ‘C’ Sophia is expected to be constructed next year, as $144 million was allocated towards its completion in Budget 2018. This was announced by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan during his National Budget presentation, on Monday.
In July 2016, fire destroyed the entire top flat of the centre’s Hadfield Street, Georgetown location and claimed the lives of Antonio and Joshua George, aged two and six. The preliminary report on the fire had found that the centre had systematic problems and bad policy arrangements for any occurrence of a fire or similar emergency.
In less than a year after, government announced that it has identified a piece of land for the construction of a new centre at Sophia. The sum of $20M was allocated in the 2017 National Budget for preliminary works.
