Durban - While there are more than 4 000 homeless people living on the streets in eThekwini’s inner city, the municipality has revealed it can only assist a fraction of these people.
Councillors were briefed on the state of homelessness in the city as well as attempts to address the issue during a council meeting last week.
This followed requests by the opposition parties to detail the extent of homelessness.
The city said it had more than 4 000 people in the inner city and could only afford to assist about 10% of them.
But opposition party councillors and organisations that work with the homeless expressed scepticism about that figure, stating they believe the figure to be much higher.
Speaking of the efforts to assist the homeless, it was revealed that the city operates three shelters which opened during Covid-19 and is setting up a more permanent structure that will accommodate between 250 and 300 men.
The city said efforts are made to encourage individuals who are sleeping on the streets to move into shelters.
It said homeless people are advised about shelters where they can sleep, but some do not want to go there because of tight control.
Raymond Perrier, from the Denis Hurley Centre, said he believed there were now around 6 000 homeless people in the city. He said the figure of 4 000 came from a survey done about six years ago.
“We are now serving 30 to 40% more meals than we had been serving before the lockdown,” Perrier said.
He said many of the homeless are young men who come from areas like Harding and uMzimkhulu looking for work.
When they could not find work, they ended up on the street.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic, last year’s unrest and the floods in April this year had made the situation worse as jobs had diminished further and more people needed help.
DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa said he did not believe there are only 4 000 homeless people.
Mthethwa said homelessness was a serious threat for a city like Durban, which is a tourist destination.
“You cannot separate homelessness from crime. If you have a large number of people who are homeless and unemployed, you end up having crime hotspots.”
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said the IFP has been calling for homeless people to be profiled in order to identify those who are in need.
“Not all of these people are destitute. We have been saying since 2016 that they should be profiled.
“Those who need assistance will be assisted, and we put measures in place to prevent these numbers from increasing,” he said.