Urban homelessness is a phenomenon that is spanning a number of unprivileged and poorer sections of society and goes beyond the approach of night shelters.
The differently-abled, the mentally challenged, invalids, runaway kids, victims of family and domestic violence are among them. Those who come to the city from various parts of the district for medical care or other work require accommodation for transit halt.
Some are terminally ill, either mentally or physically, and survive a few days after a home being taken in for care, according to Prakasa Rao, who runs a home at Pendurti.
Another section that grapples with homelessness is migrant labourers. They come from the neighbouring areas to work and can not afford to rent houses.
They would shuttle between their village and work-place depending upon availability of work, according to Pragada Vasu, secretary of the Association of Tribal and Urban Development, working on issues of urban homeless.
Andhra Pradesh has been leading in establishing shelters for urban homeless in the country. The effort began in a small way in Visakhapatnam with former Union Energy Secretary E.A.S. Sarma, moved by the plight of homeless, took up the issue with then Municipal Commissioner M.V. Satyanarayana. Thus the first urban shelter came into being turning into a model for A.P.
"In a survey that we conducted in association with Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) and other agencies in Zones II and III of GVMC and the Railway Station and the RTC Complex we identified 690 homeless," says Mr. Vasu, who is a member of the State-level Committee on Shelters for Urban Homeless.
Migrant labourers
He estimates that around 200 migrant labourers that gather at the addas (from where they are picked up by labour contractors for daily work) sleep on shop premises, cellars and in areas surrounding parks.
The numbers may be representative but not exact and the survey in 2017 is random and not periodic, he says. Besides areas like One Town, Old Post Office and Beach Road also have migrant labourers. Though the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission talked about transit accommodation for migrant labourers it never materialised.
Saying that some of the shelters are small, Mr. Vasu demands that separate homes be set up for physically challenged and mentally retarded and the other homes also should have a capacity of 50 to 100. The Supreme Court mandated that a shelter each be set up for every one lakh population. However it is seen more in the context of very cold climate of North India, particularly New Delhi, during winter.
In New Delhi, the shelters are called Referral Homes and accommodate workers on payment of nominal fee. In Kerala, men’s hostels are constructed for migrant workers in a pilot project at Kanjikode in Palakkad district in a State-owned industrial park.