EHF urges homeless organisations to keep record of beneficiaries

The Ekurhuleni Homeless Forum (EHF) pleaded with organisations that look after homeless people in the region to keep a record of all their beneficiaries.

The EHF needs these statistics to secure funding for the various organisations looking after the homeless in the different parts of Ekurhuleni from the Department of Social Development (DSD).

“The DSD wants us to identify the number of homeless people within the different parts of the city. Our target is to identify 4 800 homeless people so that we can prove to DSD why it’s critical for these organisations to be funded,” said Zen Teigte.

Teigte was reporting back on the EHF’s activities since the adoption of its strategy in May, at a stakeholders’ meeting at Manger Care Centre (MCC) on October 20.

As per the census 2022 stats released recently, there were 55 719 homeless people in the country (44 512 roofless and 11 207 in shelters), with 45.6% or around 25 407 in Gauteng.

Of the provincial homeless population, 6 056 were in Ekurhuleni, but Teigte questioned the accuracy of the census stats, reiterating that it was critical the EHF had its own record.

“We need to identify and prove that we have more than 4 800 homeless people in Ekurhuleni. We ask the different organisations to keep an attendance register of their beneficiaries when they are on outreach programmes so we could take them to DSD,” he said.

Housing

Teigte explained that municipal buildings were being made available to shelters but as per their monitoring and evaluation outcome, they were not suitable to house people, adding that the government’s allocation model wasn’t working.

“There are lots of municipal buildings available but they don’t meet the specifications for us to house people. The way the government is allocating the buildings isn’t working.

“We’ve been working with various stakeholders to see what we can do and see if there isn’t a different model we can use to make the buildings available to organisations.”

He said they were sitting with a problem because of the unavailability of space for shelters.

“Shelters are good but no one wants them near their homes. Communities don’t want people staying in front of their homes or businesses. They want to keep their areas clean. They want homeless people housed in shelters. We are sitting with a conundrum as there’s no space for shelters.”

Opportunities for beneficiaries

The MCC chairperson announced that through the sustainable livelihood funding programme, the DSD was committed to upskilling and rehabilitating the homeless, with 1 500 beneficiaries targeted from next year.

“As a forum, we want to absorb our beneficiaries already working. If you already have people working in your organisation, please send us their details if they want to be part of the skills programme. We urge organisations to get involved in the programme.”

Non-compliant organisations

Teigte urged organisations to help the EHF and DSD clamp down on non-compliant organisations, announcing that due to non-compliance, the DSD had stopped funding over 80 organisations.

“Report organisations that aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing. We need to come up with a strategy to make organisations comply and for those that don’t, we have to help DSD deregister them.”

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