Following representations from families living in the Ritchie Street Home for Homeless Cooperative Housing Society to help repay their debts to Hudco, the Joint Secretary to the Government had written to the Greater Chennai Corporation to find out if there were any provisions to help them.
The State was also intimated by the National Human Rights Commission, to whom the residents had sent requests early this year.
However, in the letter dated September 11, the Deputy Commissioner (Health), Greater Chennai Corporation, had stated that the shelter and the NGO referred in the letter did not come under the purview of the NULM-Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) run by the Corporation.
The letter also said that there were 47 homeless shelters in the city, including 10 special shelters in hospitals, functioning under the Corporation that could be utilised by the homeless temporarily for a period of four to six months.
Response awaited
“We are waiting for the Commissioner’s response,” said a senior official from the Corporation’s Health Department.
The residents from the Ritchie Street Home were moved from the streets 10 years ago and given a 137 sq.ft room in the two-storeyed building. That, however, had come with a price. Hudco had provided a loan of ₹24 lakh for building the shelter on the condition that the residents repaid the amount through the NGO, CODIAC. But after the NGO declared its helplessness to repay, the fund recovery process was transferred to Hudco, who later filed a legal case against the residents. The amount that the residents had to pay now was over ₹70 lakh.
“We have spent tens of thousands of rupees on our lawyers to seek help from the State. We wonder why we were brought here, we were happier on the streets,” said Anthony, a resident.
The residents later wrote to various departments in both the State and Centre citing their helplessness. The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board too was in the process of examining the viability to help them repay their loans and also provide them decent housing.
Building damaged
“Apart from the loan amount, what we also need is redevelopment of this building. Every part of it is damaged and keeps falling,” said P. Bhuvana.
“People have been residing in these shelters for decades now and they should have been provided permanent housing. But sadly their problem remains unsolved. This is nothing but a violation of basic human rights. The State must make amends,” said Vanessa Peter, policy researcher, Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities.
