Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH)

Importance

As per guiding principle 2.7 of the Mission Document, Urban homeless persons who live without shelter or social security/protection are the most vulnerable class, even while they contribute towards sustaining cities with their cheap labour. Life on the streets involves surviving continuously at the edge, in a physically brutalized and challenging environment. There is a need for appropriate policy intervention to address the challenges faced by homeless people, with regard to shelter, social housing and social protection. Accordingly, DAY-NULM would aim at providing shelters equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.

Norms

1. For every 1 lakh urban population, permanent – 24x7 - all weather community shelters. Depending upon local conditions, each shelter could cater to 50 - 100 persons. Cities are free to plan above this norm, if there is a perceived need, but these estimations provide a base number of shelters, which each city is legally bound to provide. 
2. All necessary infrastructural facilities to be put in place – kitchen, water, sanitation, electricity, recreation, etc. A minimum space of 5 square meters or 50 sq. ft. per person to be provided.
3. Location of shelters to be close to the places of concentration of homeless persons and their work places.
4. Linkages with social security and other entitlements to be ensured.
5. Shelter Management Committees to be set up to run and manage the shelters.
6. Shelters to be run on a PPCP mode - associating with agencies identified by the State including Building Centers, PSUs, NGOs, CBOs, Private Sector Enterprises, etc., for construction and management.

Definition of Urban Homeless

  Persons who do not have a house, either self-owned or rented, but instead live and sleep at pavements, parks, railway stations, bus stations, places of worship, outside shops and factories, at constructions sites, under bridges, in hume pipes and other places under the open sky, or places unfit for human habitation  spend their nights and/or days at shelters, transit homes, short stay homes, beggars’ homes and children’s homes live in temporary structures with or without walls under plastic sheets or thatch roofs on pavements, parks, ‘nallah’ beds and other common spaces. Within this group, there are multiple degrees of vulnerability. For instance, there are single women, the infirm and old, the disabled and persons who have special needs such as floating migrant populations unable to find labour or food, those involved in substance abuse and patients suffering from debilitating diseases.

Role & Responsibility of ULB

1. To conduct systematic survey;
2. To bring in land for the Shelter for Urban Homeless;
3. Submit DPR summary format to be forwarded to Govt. of India;
4. To finalize Operations & Management plan for the shelter, Shelter Management Committees to be set up  to run and manage the shelters;
5. To enter the Detailed Project Report in the DAY-NULM MIS for consideration.