Left roofless and vulnerable to assaults

TIRUCHY: Street dwellers across the city are in need of help. With shelter homes unable to accommodate all of them owing to a restriction of taking not more than 150 persons at each facility, many are left roofless and vulnerable to attack by miscreants. The lack of identity cards has also been cited as a reason for many of them not getting accommodation at the shelters.

Residents are of the opinion that the Smart City project offers nothing much for the street dwellers and the Corporation should at least construct more night shelters for women and the aged.

Selvi (40), a homeless woman staying near Aristo bridge, said, “We cannot use the shelters as they allow only people having a proper identity card issued by the Corporation. A card is issued only after we produce certain documents, which many of us do not possess. Currently, drug addicts and miscreants disturb us at night, demand money and try to misbehave with us. The authorities should make some relaxation as regards the identity card rule.”

Marimuthu (68), another street dweller, said,”I lost my personal documents while travelling from one city to another. Getting an identity card is now difficult. Several people like me  are not having any document. Many of us are facing lot of trouble from miscreants during the night. The Corporation should consider constructing some shelters for us, perhaps in the Smart City project which they are raving about.”

A senior Corporation official said, “We have three night shelters in the city managed by NGOs. We have insisted on identity cards only to ensure safety. We will consider this issue ,come up with a solution and find a way to accomodate the homeless in the city.”