A new home for KL's homeless soon?

A multipurpose hall will be built by Kuala Lumpur City Hall to provide shelter for the homeless of Kuala Lumpur. In a report by The Star on Tuesday, KL mayor Datuk Ahmad Phesal Talib said the initiative was to gather all of the city's homeless in one place. "We realise there are different types of homeless people such as drug addicts, immigrants, the ignored elderly and single mothers. There are also those who work but do not want to spend money to rent a house, preferring to live under a bridge instead," he said. Ahmad Phesal said, the proposal was discussed in a meeting with the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, Social Welfare Department, the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department and several NGOs. "We're deciding on the appropriate complex. We have made a survey on some of the buildings around Jalan Chow Kit and Lorong Haji Taib," said Ahmad Phesal. He said NGOs supplying food for the homeless will also be placed in the multipurpose hall to ensure that City Hall could carry out their cleanings more effectively. "Currently, the homeless who receive food from NGOs are disposing the food packets all over the place. This makes the cleaning process difficult," he said. Ahmad Phesal said, child care facilities will also be set up in the building to help single mothers care for their kids. On May 31, AWANI745 had featured a focus on the never-ending issue of homelessness, with a discussion on the possible efforts that can be done to find solutions in helping this community. Astro AWANI had discovered that about 1,000 homeless people make some public places in Kuala Lumpur their homes every night.