Durban has plans for permanent solution for its homeless, says Deputy Mayor
The needle and syringe programme is a highly effective harm-reduction initiative that involves providing free clean needles to people who inject (themselves) with drugs (PWIDs). It was introduced as a measure to prevent HIV transmission.
THE city of Durban is working on a permanent solution for the 2500 homeless currently being held in shelters across the city.
Belinda Scott, Deputy Mayor of Durban and also leader of the city’s homeless task team, was coy about the details of the plan.
Belinda Scott, Deputy Mayor of Durban.
“We have got very firm plans in place, I won’t give you details of the plan,” she said.
“Once they are allowed to move around, the city will be providing a facility where the homeless can sleep at night and providing containers on site to look after their blankets and belongings.”
Scott said the city had identified the Bellhaven Memorial Centre building for the site of a wellness centre, where homeless people struggling with drug addiction can be admitted.
She was speaking at the Moses Mabhida stadium which has served as one of 8 temporary homeless shelters in Durban.
The homeless shelters have been frequented by health services professionals to treat people struggling with addiction.
Professor Monique Marks, a drug-use expert who has been working at the shelters, said the city will be re-introducing the needle and syringe programme as part of its harm reduction strategy.
The homeless shelter at Moses Mabhida stadium
The needle and syringe programme is a highly effective harm-reduction initiative that involves providing free clean needles to people who inject (themselves) with drugs (PWIDs). It was introduced as a measure to prevent HIV transmission.
“When they share the same needles they are also transmitting platform illnesses further to one another, this is the last thing we want in the situation of Covid-19,” said Marks.
Sduduzo Mabizela is one of the 200-odd homeless people living in the Moses Mabhida shelter. Mabizela, who is from Pietermaritzburg, came to Durban to look for a job but instead found himself engrossed in drugs. Since admitting himself to the homeless shelters, he has been treated with periodic doses of methadone, an opiod used to manage pain relief and drug addiction.
Sduduzo Mabizela, one of the homeless people living at the Moses Mabhida homeless shelter.
“I am going to come out here a different person than I was coming in,” said Mabizela.
The city said it is working with Home Affairs and Social Development to try and meet its goal of reuniting 40 per cent of homeless people with their families.
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