Kuching to have two temporary transit centres for homeless folks

KUCHING (Jan 23): Two temporary transit centres would be set up here to provide shelter to homeless individuals roaming the streets in the city, said Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Sarawak Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.

She said the centres would be replicating the one currently operating in Sibu, which had been proven to be effective in tackling the issue of homelessness in the town.

“We established the pilot project on homeless transit centre in Sibu, and we now want to establish the first one in Kuching.

“Although we face problems with identifying the premises initially, we managed to identify the building for such operation as time went by,” she told reporters when met after leading a delegation to pay a courtesy visit on Kuching North Datuk Bandar Hilmy Othman at Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) headquarters here yesterday.

In terms of profiling, the minister said as of 2022, Kuching had topped the list with 42 homeless individuals, followed by Sibu at 25, Miri with eight, Bintulu with seven, Sarikei with three, Samarahan with three, and Betong with one – adding that 66 of the homeless individuals were men.

Fatimah said the first transit centre in Kuching would be set up on the third floor of the Kuching Community Social Support Centre (CSSC) at Jalan Padungan, while another would be sited at a shoplot at Jalan P Ramlee.

She further said various services would be provided to the residents of these transit centres, including counselling, job-matching and teaching them some income-generating skills.

“Some of the homeless individuals have landed jobs such as security guards, managing public toilets, at coffee shops and car wash centres, as well as being employed as teachers.

“Basic literacy education is also provided at the transit centres to increase the residents’ employability,” she added.

On the operation of Kuching CSSC, Fatimah said the soup kitchen there had served a total of 37,000 meals throughout last year, and her ministry was looking at setting up another such centre in areas under the jurisdiction of DBKU.

Among those present were her deputy ministers Datuk Rosey Yunus and Datuk Mohamad Razi Sitam, and also Deputy Minister II for Utility and Telecommunication Sarawak Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi, who is also the minister-in-charge of DBKU.