A year on, safety and shelter still elude Chennai’s homeless

CHENNAI: It was around noon when this reporter met L Jayalakshmi, an urban

homeless

city resident. Cursing fate for leaving her in desperate need and holding back her tears, she asked, "I don't even have a place to rest. I have nothing at all. What is the purpose of my life here?" Jayalakshmi's home is a spot covered with tarpaulin, next to a dumpster on Stringer street in George Town. She tested

Covid-19

positive five months ago and the complications continue to wear her down.

But as Jayalakshmi narrated her ordeal, several others who lived on the street gathered around, explaining their desperate conditions, with palpable anger. The city's homeless continue to live without proper nutrition and completely exposed to the virus a year after the pandemic set in. There are more than 8,000 homeless people in the city.

“Having a home will solve most of our problems, this is the only route to a better life,” said T Kumaramma, a daily wager and mother of three who has been living on the street for more than four decades.

"If one of us dies of Covid-19, who do we blame? Are we at fault or should the blame be on the authorities for not providing us shelter?” asked Balaji Kumar, a vendor. “It’s been a year and still nothing is done about it,” he said.


Vanessa Peter, policy researcher of Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), an NGO, called for a comprehensive

Covid

control and prevention programme for homeless settlements. “This should also ensure access to basic needs including shelters safeguarding the right to life and dignity of the persons in homeless situations.”

A study by IRCDUC found that over 85% of people residing in homeless situations in the city live as families with children, elders, and those with comorbidities. It also said that the ratio of the people in homeless situations to public toilets is 500:1 which further increases the risk of spreading the infection.


Both the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (

NULM

) and the guidelines issued by the commissioners of the Supreme Court mandates setting up family shelters for homeless families, as a transition space, before moving them to permanent housing, without affecting their livelihood. But while the city has 55 homeless shelters for individuals, there are none for families.

When asked if there is any plan to open family shelters, a senior official from the health department of the Greater Chennai Corporation did not seem optimistic.“Establishing a family shelter is not currently under consideration. We will try to make use of community centres temporarily, due to COVID restrictions."

The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (

TNSCB

) which has been promising housing for the city's homeless for two years now, is yet to fulfill the announcement. An official source from the board said that the pandemic and the assembly elections stalled the process.


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