Durban — The plight of homeless people will be highlighted during visits to various shelters in Durban on Monday.
As part of observing World Homelessness Day and Urban October 2022, the organisation the “City People” team will visit one of the temporary homeless shelters on Fynn Street in Greyville on Monday.
The team will also visit Bellhaven Harm Reduction Centre in Greyville.
A homelessness dialogue will be held on Wednesday at the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts in Glenwood.
The theme in 2022 is Pathways Home.
The visit is part of United Nations Habitat’s Urban October where people around the world will observe World Homeless Day, which was started in 2010. The purpose of World Homeless Day is to draw attention to the needs of people who experience homelessness locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness, while taking advantage of the stage an international day provides ‒ to end homelessness through improved policy and funding.
City People, which was founded in Durban, is a local implementing partner of the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as eThekwini Municipality’s Social Development Strategy and the Sakha iTheku-Shape Durban Strategy.
In partnership with local and global committed stakeholders, City People is unique in that it develops, promotes and implements effective programmes targeting urban and peri-urban socio-economic challenges. Ultimately promoting a better urban future by improving lives and transforming communities through collective, impact-driven interventions.
City People is currently working on a programme called Pathways Home, which examines homelessness within the eThekwini Municipality.
The programme aims to create equitable partnerships with committed public and private stakeholders so as to drive the development and successful implementation of eThekwini’s Homelessness Policy, build public awareness around available, accessible and verified feeding schemes, examine the feasibility of creating a better and innovative system (using digital technology and data-driven solutions) to understand and assist the homeless with better access to targeted services, explore interventions to facilitate the homeless re-entering the job market, and to support those rehabilitated from substance use disorder to start their own businesses, find employment or join co-operatives.
The eThekwini Municipality provided temporary shelters for more than 2 000 homeless people during the national lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19. Those accommodated in the shelters received three meals a day through generous donations from the public. In the initial stages of the programme, eThekwini had over 1 500 people that were housed in eight shelters. By the end of April, they had 12 shelters accommodating 1 704 people.
Daily News