Lower Illovo community blind-sided over shelter

RESIDENTS and the business community of Lower Illovo are up in arms after eThekwini Municipality ‘went behind their backs’ and accepted recommendations for a 400-bed homeless shelter to be opened in the area.

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According to the August 1 council meeting minutes, the grand plan is to move homeless people from the Durban CBD and house them in Lower Illovo. The move comes after eThekwini’s Inner City Regeneration Committee recommended that a homeless shelter that was earmarked for Durban would be bad for the image of the city as it would be too close to the Moses Mabhida stadium, the Greyville racecourse and other tourist attractions.

Since eThekwini owns the disused Sakhithemba Home, which is on Erf 16946 in Lower Illovo, it has accepted recommendations that Durban’s homeless be moved there.

Residents whom the SUN spoke with expressed shock as they were not aware of the developments. Since early August, workers have been at Sakhithemba, clearing overgrowth and vegetation at what used to be a Young Men’s Christian Association’s (YMCA) halfway house for drug addicts a few years ago. The YMCA had leased the facility from the municipality in 2009 but moved out after it ran out of funds.

The facility shares a fence with Lower Illovo Primary School, and there is a church and a temple nearby. The Mother of Peace orphanage is less than a kilometre away.

While the matter was deferred from the August 1 council meeting, the council has already recommended that R13.6 million be re-prioritised from another project to renovate Sakhithemba Home. According to the minutes, the facility, once complete, will provide the homeless with health screening and assessments, feeding, social-work services, security and drug rehabilitation.

Councillor André Beetge, who is on the City’s executive committee, does not support the relocation of homeless people and did not vote for it in council.

“While I’m not opposed to the idea of rehabilitating drug addicts and the homeless, we need to start with our existing problems and fix those, and not import 400 new ones from Durban. If we bring those people to this community, what are they going to do when their time at the shelter is up? We have no industries here, so there is no work. They are going to filter out into the community and exacerbate crime and drugs,” said Beetge. He also decried the fact that there was no consultation with the community.

Pastor Kuben Govender of the Olivet Christian Fellowship Church expressed shock when asked if he knew of the developments.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of this. Why were we not consulted? We are opposed to this because we’ve had situations previously when the home was a YMCA halfway house. There was a crime spike, and there were fights. We won’t take this lying down,” said Govender.

The chairperson of the Lower Illovo Neighbourhood Watch, Austin Gounden, also said it was the first time he had heard of it. In a statement, the governing body of Lower Illovo Primary School said the matter should not even be negotiable as it felt the safety of the learners would be compromised.

The matter will be finalised in council on August 29.

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