City Hall's one-stop-centres for homeless not just a 'free food' pit stop

Kechara Soup Kitchen Project director, Justin Cheah, said the centres were not merely a facility to distribute free meals to the homeless, they presented an opportunity for social workers and volunteers to reach out to them.

"At the facility, we can approach and talk to them in a more conducive environment. We can provide them counseling, get to the root cause of their situation.

"We can try and rehabilitate their mind to encourage them that all is not lost and that they can lead a normal life," he told Bernama recently.

Cheah said his group was also finding ways to find employment and affordable rooms to rent for identified individuals.

He also dismissed public perception that the existence of such centres would add to the number of vagrants in the city.

"Many parties wrongly perceive the intention of non governmental organisations (NGOs) that feed the homeless as encouraging vagrancy.

"Actually, it is one way for us to earn their trust so that they will open up and share their problems with us, then only can we find ways to help them," he said.

In their interaction with the vagrants, Cheah and his team found that some of the individuals do have a job but could not afford to rent a room to stay.

Some were jobless and did not have any direction in life because they had been ostracised by their families; some had been cheated of their assets, said Cheah.

Pertiwi Soup Kitchen chairman Munirah Abdul Hamid said City Hall's one-stop centres would facilitate NGOs' efforts to assist the marginalised street community.

"Alhamdulillah, I am very grateful to City Hall. We can look forward to more one-stop centres. In the meantime, we will operate at the Medan Tuanku centre," she said.

The one-stop centre for the homeless at Jalan Medan Tuanku was opened on Sept 25. It consists of basic facilities such as toilets, bathrooms, prayer rooms as well as space for NGOs to manage distribution of food.