‘It’s back to square one for the homeless’
CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC) move to temporarily relocate the residents of a shelter for homeless in Koyambedu to Teynampet (located around 10 km away) has resulted in several people going back to the streets.
Homeless persons, mostly daily wagers, are generally found in large numbers in Koyambedu, taking shelter at the bus terminus at nights. With the Koyambedu night shelter now undergoing renovation, the only option available to them at present is the shelter in Teynampet.
The shelter for homeless in Koyambedu, managed by Loyola Shelter Home NGO, has been functioning from the Round Building on Ayappa Nagar Main Road since 2016. As the building was in bad shape, the city corporation decided to move the residents temporarily to a community hall in Jai Nagar in 2021, allegedly assuring them that a new structure would be constructed at the same place. Three years later, no efforts have been made to reconstruct the building.
Over 10 days ago, the GCC reportedly told the occupants that there were plans to repurpose the community hall in Jai Nagar for public use and relocate the shelter’s residents to the Teynampet shelter (on Old Chamiers Road), which was originally designated as a women’s shelter but had remained unused after the NGO running it withdrew.
The move has already led to at least 13 residents returning to streets due to the increased distance from their workplaces, which are primarily in Koyambedu.
GCC officials said work on the new shelter at Ayyappa Nagar will begin soon. However, with the old building only being demolished now, it could take several months for construction of a new shelter, said occupants.
Such unplanned shifting of shelter from a crucial place like Koyambedu only undermines the purpose of the rehabilitation scheme designed to improve the lives of the homeless, say activists.
They added that the corporation could have deferred renovation of the community hall for a few more months until the new shelter came up.
“The relocation has disrupted the efforts of volunteers who find it hard to convince the homeless to accept shelter,” said an activist.
In another case, the corporation is planning to demolish a 30-year-old homeless boys’ shelter on Thiruveethi Amman Koil Street in Thiruvanmiyur.
Sources indicate that the shelter will be replaced by a community hall under MP funds, and the boys would be relocated to a new building on Gangai Amman Koil Street, nearly 2 km away. Managed by Jeeva Jyothi for the past five years, the boys even receive judo training at the facility which has helped students like R Raja (11) win national competitions.
“However, the new allocated building offers inadequate space for training and will also result in long travel for students to reach their school. Instead of a community hall, the old shelter should be rebuilt at the same place with proper facilities,” said sources.
The National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) guidelines state that for every 1 lakh urban population, provisions should be made for permanent community shelters for a minimum of 100 persons. With Chennai’s population, there must be approximately 80 shelters. However, there are just over 45 shelters now.