It has taken her six years to get municipal approval but a Durban woman is on the verge of opening the first council-approved homeless shelter in the CBD.
Nestled between hair salons, a hotel and various clothing stores along Soldiers Way in the heart of the city centre, Charlene Usher has converted an old night club into a shelter.
Named Haven of Hope, Usher has pumped nearly R200 000 into bringing the two-storey facility up to municipal standards.
It had taken her six years and countless hours overcoming municipal bureaucracy, she said.
This week, the shelter climbed its final municipal hurdle – passing a water inspection.
Usher plans to open the doors on September 1.
It will accommodate 100 homeless people – 31 women and 69 men – who will be charged R40 a night for a bed.
“This is not about making money for me. I really care about helping out people. I often walk around town and see people who ask me for a R5 or R2 and who are hustling to make money for the shelter.
“When I looked around at the other shelters and saw the conditions I knew I could do something and give people better than what they were getting,” she said.
Usher also has several closed circuit television cameras that monitor the entrance and all common areas. She said that cleanliness and security would be a priority.
Usher’s plans come after the city, this week, said it planned to regulate homeless shelters that charged homeless people to live in squalor.
The city had also contracted the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to undertake a comprehensive study on homelessness.
City officials are concerned that the shelters – which have mushroomed in recent years – have lost the “human touch” and have become too commercialised.
Observers believe it is these shelters that fuel rampant begging at traffic intersections where beggars desperately try to make the fee for the night.
Usher said shelters, if managed properly, were beneficial to the needs of homeless.
“There are so many people who have just fallen on hard times and cannot make it. It’s just hard for them to make rent and they need a decent place to sleep every night. That is what I will offer,” she said.
Usher said her shelter was a dormitory-style facility with separate floors for women and men. People staying at the shelter would have to have a shower before being assigned a bed and given coffee and a sandwich each morning before they would be required to leave.
“They will have to be out of here by 8am so that we can clean and disinfect for the next night. The elderly and those who are sick will not have to leave and I will provide them with an area where they can stay during the day,” she said.
Usher said that before being given city approval she had to meet several requirements including having sufficient ventilation, natural light coming into the facility, adequate bathrooms and toilets and an evacuation plan.
She proudly shows off her municipal certificates of compliance and said it was time that other shelters were brought up to standard.
eThekwini municipal spokeswoman, Tozi Mthethwa, confirmed that Haven of Hope was the first city approved shelter and that the certificates of compliance shown to the Daily News were authentic.