ETHEKWINI Municipality’s decision to establish an emergency shelter for the homeless in the Strollers Building on Mansel Road has been criticised for taking too long and forcing more people onto the streets of Durban.
A report detailing the transfer of the management of the Strollers Building on Mansel Road from 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 last week.
The report, first tabled at a Security and Emergency Services Committee meeting on 22 May, proposed that the upper floor level of the municipal-owned building be reserved for the homeless while the ground floor level be used by the Business Support Unit and the eThekwini Municipal Academy for small business support and skills development initiatives. The report claimed that vulnerable groups, including women, children and families, would be accommodated at the building.
Responding to the proposal, Raymond Perrier, director of the Denis Hurley Centre and chair of the eThekwini Task Team on Homelessness, welcomed the news that the City was taking action, but questioned whether the action was fast or effective enough to meet the needs presented. Perrier said it was feared that when two private shelters in the Durban CBD, where a large number of women and children were staying, closed, these vulnerable individuals would be on the streets, joining the 2 000 homeless already on the streets of central Durban.
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“The threat of this was first brought to the attention of the Deputy Mayor and municipal officials at a Task Team meeting in January. An immediate solution was presented at the time – the Strollers facility on Mansel Road that was mostly empty. If the municipality recognised this as a real emergency they could have opened the doors to women and children without delay. The shelters closed in February and April. Now, at the end of May, the achievement trumpeted by the municipality is that after four months they have a shelter, but all they have done is move responsibility for the facility from one municipal unit to another. The shelter is still not open for women and children – some of whom have already been on the streets for three months,” said Perrier.
The report recommends that a call for proposals be madene, with the view of securing a suitable non-governmental organisation with the capacity and resources to operate the Strollers facility as a shelter for homeless people. It further recommends that upon the establishment of a non-profit company (NPC), for use as a special purpose vehicle to implement projects and programmes linked to curbing homelessness in eThekwini, funds generated through the NPC be utilised towards supporting the Strollers building and other related projects.
The report also suggests that the Provincial Department of Social Development and the Department of Human Settlements be consulted to provide necessary support in the form of institutional funding for projects and programmes linked to alleviating homelessness in eThekwini.
However, Perrier said that at a recent Task Team meeting, municipal officials estimated that it would take a further two months to appoint an NPO to run the facility. making the earliest that it might be open for business 1 August – seven months after the ‘emergency’ was first relayed to the municipality.
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“Moreover, this NPO is expected to run the facility without any funding earmarked by the municipality. It might not be charged for the use of the building, though even that is not definite, but they will have to find funding for all the costs of hosting the 200+ people that it can accommodate. There is a claim that funds could be channelled towards this project from Province, who have made no commitment, or via the NPC that is being developed, but this does not exist yet, is unproven and in any case will mostly be seeking non-municipal funds,” said Perrier.
He said cynics might point out that what the municipality has effectively done is reduce its own costs, since it no longer has to cover the security and utilities for the building, and pass these and additional costs on to an NPO while claiming that the municipality is now providing an ‘emergency shelter’.
“The approach of eThekwini seems to assume that NPOs, Provincial Government or the business sector will fund the City’s response to homelessness – anyone but eThekwini itself with its R50 billion budget. This is in contrast to both Cape Town and Johannesburg which have dedicated and well-funded units focused on supporting the homeless. In both these cities there are also shelters that are run by, or funded by, or at least subsidised by, the municipality. Last week, eThekwini invited municipal officials from both these cities to a two-day Learning Exchange. We very much hope that they will indeed learn from the best practice that they now know is being pursued in other parts of South Africa,” he said.
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