Ministry mulls transit centres for homeless
KUCHING: The Ministry of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development is actively discussing the implementation of transit centres for the homeless.
Its minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said that the concept of transit centres was imperative in tackling the issue of homelessness, even if the statistics for the homeless were not as high as other states in Malaysia.
“The plan to implement transit centres is currently being discussed under my ministry in Sarawak. The pilot project is in Sibu, but at the same time we also understand that there is a need for this in other parts of Sarawak such as Kuching, Bintulu and Miri. These are the places with a large number of the homeless in Sarawak.
“Even though the statistics are not as high as other states in Malaysia such as Kuala Lumpur, but the homelessness issue needs to be tackled when it is still considered small, not when it becomes a big issue,” Fatimah said.
She made this call after a working visit to a group of homeless individuals at Kuching Waterfront, and an urban poor family staying at Taman Won, Matang here who sells paku and midin.
Fatimah added that the transit centre would serve as a place that the homeless could go to get food, have a shower and sleep.
“In our experience with the homeless, we have found that they do not want to be placed in an institution. They just want a place that they can go to for food, have a shower and sleep at night, then during the day they can go to work if they have managed to secure a job.
“So once we manage to set up such transit centres and find a non-government organisation (NGO) that can manage it fulltime, we hope that the homeless will be able to receive help whether from Good Samaritans, corporates, NGOs or the government,” she added.
On this particular group of the homeless, Fatimah said that she would discuss with the Social Welfare Department for a more detailed look into their potential.
“They do not want to ask for donations – they are independent. I respect this and they only need help in terms of accommodation. We need to review this case-by-case because each of these individuals have their own uniqueness and we know that this is a ‘young group’, between 30 to 40 years old, and they want to work so we need to look at what kind of jobs they can secure and whether or not the job can provide them with accommodation,” she said.
Speaking on the urban poor family, Fatimah said that her ministry had gone through their application for aid and would be speaking with the acting director of the Social Welfare Department.
“We have gone through their application and will expedite their application and we will talk with the acting director of the Social Welfare Department to consider their application. Hopefully by July, monthly assistance of RM300 under ‘Skim Warga Emas’ can be disbursed.
“We will also focus on assisting one of their kids who is still schooling so that they will not be left out in the education stream. We also planned on Saturday to bring their child and grandchildren to buy school clothes as well as stationery,” she said.
She added that her ministry would be communication with community leaders as well as the surau committee as their current living quarters was on the surau’s land.
“We need to have a discussion so that a more comfortable accommodation can be provided for them. We need to communicate with the ketua kaum or community leader in that area as well as the surau committee and the respective assemblyman. Of course, we welcome any form of aid from Good Samaritans or NGOs.
“What is important is that we have a complete profile of the housing facilities and number of people in the family. This is important so that further action can be taken by the ketua kaum or community leader to give the appropriate aid,” Fatimah stressed.
She noted that they would be looking into aid for repairing or rebuilding their house such as through the Hardcore Poor Housing Programme (PPRT) or other channels from agencies or corporate bodies that could provide this aid.
The plan to implement transit centres is currently being discussed under my ministry in Sarawak. The pilot project is in Sibu, but at the same time we also understand that there is a need for this in other parts of Sarawak such as Kuching, Bintulu and Miri. These are the places with a large number of the homeless in Sarawak. Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah