DURBAN - THE eThekwini Municipality has confirmed that no shelter will be shut down yet.
The municipality was responding to concerns that it planned to close three safe open sleeping spaces (SOS) accommodating more than 500 homeless people around the city.
Director of the Denis Hurley Centre and former chairperson of the eThekwini Task Team on Homelessness, Raymond Perrier said the idea of the sites came up two years before Covid-19 and the municipality was actively exploring SOS as a model to keep people off the streets.
“The SOS were then introduced in record time when the hard lockdown began in March 2020,” said Perrier.
With talks of closure of the three remaining sites, Perrier said an emergency meeting was held on Monday by Professor Monique Marks, who is the deputy chairperson, eThekwini Task Team on Homelessness.
In the meeting, the city’s Safer Cities senior manager Nomusa Shembe confirmed that no one would be moved out of the current sites in the near future.
EThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said as a caring city, it would not abandon people during the cold winter months.
“The shelters will not be closing as yet, they will be closed once the open safe sleeping space to be built in Block AK is completed,” said Mayisela.
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