Durban - DELAYED municipal processes have prevented the city from rolling out its plans to look after the more than 2 200 homeless people roaming Durban’s streets.
This was according to acting mayor Fawzia Peer, speaking after meeting with members of the Homeless Task Team this week.
Peer asked the team to make a presentation to the Homeless People Committee on what they would like the city to do to address the issue of the city’s homeless people, since the city did not have funds to do so.
Peer said the city had many plans for the homeless, but financial challenges and delayed municipal processes prevented the city from rolling out the strategies.
A 30-year-old homeless Congolese man was recently stabbed to death on Shamrock Lane, off Point Road.
Parboo Sewpersad, the metro police acting director, said the man was already dead when the police arrived on the scene. He said the police were working at establishing the motive for the killing and establishing who had stabbed him.
Last year, the municipality instituted a task team, led by Peer, to address homelessness in the city.
Raymond Perrier, the director of the Denis Hurley Centre, said Monday’s meeting followed a letter they wrote to Peer last Thursday, asking her to address the issue of homelessness as a matter of urgency following the closure of several shelters in the city.
He said the deaths of homeless people was among the reasons they wanted the municipality to act fast.
The municipality had, in March, taken a decision to establish an emergency shelter for the homeless, in the Strollers Building on Mansel Road.
The decision has been criticised for taking too long to implement and forcing more people on to the streets.
A report detailing the transfer of management of the Strollers Building, from the Human Settlements Unit to the Safer Cities Unit, for use as an emergency shelter to accommodate the homeless, was submitted to the executive committee at a meeting in May. At the time, municipal officials estimated that it would take a further two months to appoint an NPO to run the facility, making August1 the earliest that it might be open for business.
Peer said the Strollers Building previously belonged to the Department of Human Settlements and was now owned by the municipality.
“The municipality would need about R1.2million for security and cleaners and we do not have such funds. Our legal team is busy with a business plan before we can put a proposal out for a non-governmental organisation to run the Strollers Building shelter. We believe that the building will provide perfect accommodation for mothers and children,” she said.
Peer said the intention for the Strollers Building was for mothers to get a warm meal and accommodation for the night, and be taught skills that would enable them to make a living during the day.
Perrier said the homeless issue was not getting the attention it deserved.
“We wrote to Peer and presented initiatives after the task team was set up nine months ago, and no immediate action has been taken by the municipality. The lack of urgency by the municipality shows that they do not care about the safety of both the homeless and the people around the streets of the city. We have said to Peer in the letter that we do not care about the processes, but we want action,” he said.
Peer said it was not true that the city was not doing anything to address the issue.
“The plans include taking one of the buildings on the list of the Inner City Regeneration Programme to accommodate homeless men. The challenge is that the Safer Cities programme does not have enough funds,” she said.