NPO slams eThekwini’s handling of homelessness crisis
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local NPO, which shelters the homeless in the Durban CBD, has decried the
never-ending crisis.
Last week, city officials removed around 400 people in areas including Albert Park, in Margaret Mncadi Avenue and Maydon Wharf.
The eThekwini Municipality has earmarked Albert Park, which is now fenced, as a fan park ahead of the upcoming Nedbank Cup Final.
Raymond Perrier, from the Denis Hurley Centre, says the city needs a holistic approach to homelessness.
"Municipality needs a strategy in which it looks at the overall problem and tries to look at it as one whole complex problem, not as a series of small problems where they simply push people around," said Perrier.
"And that requires not just the actions of Metro and SAPS, but also working with DSD, working with the Department of Health and working with the NGOs who know the people on the streets and who have their trust."
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He said many of those who were removed from Albert Park have now ended up in Glenwood and Umbilo.
"So, understandably, people living in Glenwood and Umbilo are really irritated that the problem has just been shifted to their area.
"There were already some homeless people in that area. That number has increased because they've been pushed out of the Albert Park area.
"But ultimately, what the municipality keeps talking about is creating some massive thousand bed facility out in Illovo. So, first of all, that's a no, that's a no benefit to the people who live in IILovo, but also it's not actually going to work for homeless people because they don't want to be out in the middle of nowhere."
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