Drop-in centre at Alberts Farm launched for the homeless
One local solution could be a newly opened physical space for the homeless in and around Albert's Farm to go to in order to access the services of a social worker, a hot meal, and more.
Goolam Dawood is the chairperson of the Alberts Farm JHN sub-committee.
“This is a community-led approach where we offer counselling, and structured interventions to begin to deal with the underlying stresses of being homeless. We are working with many organisations and the broader community across all lines with the local mosque helping the church with hot, healthy meals for the homeless on drop-in days.”
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Sharleen Fiodi is the resident social worker who handles the case files for the 30 registered homeless that live at the conservancy. She and De Klerk reassured the paper that the number of homeless living there will not swell as it is being carefully monitored and managed by JHN.
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“The poor are not going away, and we need to work with them to try and help where we can and assist in restoring their dignity and worth.”
The drop-in centre is housed at the Greydene Church in Greymont and is adjacent to the farm. Minister Leon Forsman said, “This is our way of contributing to finding solutions to the problem of homelessness. We don’t have funds, but we do have facilities that should be of service to the community. We may not all see eye to eye on this issue, but we are finding each other to try and solve this complex issue.”
This is an ongoing issue that the paper will continue to follow.
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