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1. Crammed In Or Shut Out? Implications of Delhi's Homeless Shelter System's Floor Space Constraints - with Attention to the Potential Public Health Risks of Overcrowded Shelters during COVID-19

Author:
Ashwin Parulkar
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
In May 2020, about 50 residents of a cluster of homeless shelters near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital tested COVID-19 positive. Officials from the Delhi Shelter Urban Improvement Board (DUSIB), the state nodal agency responsible for the capital’s approximately 220 24X7 night shelters, later admitted these residents to nearby hospitals but did not initiate widespread testing in Delhi’s shelters. The AIIMS shelter cluster consisted mostly of tent structures set up by the government each winter on a temporary basis. Their tenure was extended this year to accommodate more people in need during the nation-wide Lockdown. AIIMS shelters were crowded spaces. The tents were 600 square feet in size and officially reserved for 50 residents – just 12 square feet per person. About 18 people actually used these tents each night, indicating that 33.8 square feet of personal space existed between residents. This is far below the national shelter floor space guideline of 50 square feet per resident stipulated by the National Urban Livelihood Mission Scheme of Shelters and endorsed by the Delhi High Court and the Honorable Supreme Court. Floor space constraints pervade Delhi’s homeless shelter system. DUSIB allots, on average, 18 square feet of personal space to the 18,478 residents that the system’s 223 shelters can officially accommodate. About 7400 people - 40% of the system’s official residential capacity - use these shelters. The amount of personal space available to these residents – the true as opposed to official shelter area - is 45 square feet per person. This tells us that (a) the average Delhi shelter operates at full capacity to overcrowded conditions and (b) the low percentage of homeless people who use the capital’s shelters represents a limit of how many people can access shelters, not merely the number who do. In that context, this study examines the question: What is the extent of overcrowding in Delhi’s shelters and its implications on the ability of residents in these spaces to socially distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19? Through an analysis of (a) occupancy, residential capacity and floor-space data archived by DUSIB; (b) district-wise homeless and overall population estimates tabulated by the Census; and (c) discussions with DUSIB and Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials , this study examines the nature and implications of limited floor space across Delhi’s homeless shelter system to ascertain the extent to which the system’s capacity and coverage problems are: rooted in shelter planning and design; and how in that context, shelter space constraints may pose a public health risk to homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic districts with rapidly growing overall populations where such space shortages are concentrated may continue to exclude homeless people from shelter; and shelters that, comparatively, have more space may also have the potential to accommodate more people, at least in the near-term.
Topic:
Homelessness, Public Health, COVID-19, and Housing
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

2. Slipping Through the Cracks: The Demolition of a Government Homeless Shelter in an Informal Settlement: The Case of Amir Khusro Park

Author:
Ashwin Parulkar, Manish, and Sunil Kumar
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
In May 2017, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) demolished a Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) shelter located in an informal settlement in South Delhi’s Amir Khusro Park. DUSIB had built the shelter in response to a 2014 Delhi High Court Order. DDA demolished the same structure in cognizance of a 2015 Delhi High Court Order, issued in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a private citizen urging the state to remove illegal encroachments in the area. The demolition of the shelter led to the eviction of various groups of people in Khusro Park: families in self-constructed ‘jhuggis’; women in the DUSIB shelter managed by a local NGO; and various people in a temporary shelter not authorized by government agencies. Field visits revealed connections between these settlements. Women and children of some jhuggi families, for instance, lived in the shelter where food, nutrition, documentation, education and health services were provided by the managing NGO for shelter residents and joint and nuclear jhuggi families. In this context, the report raises and responds to two salient questions. What makes homeless shelters in Delhi vulnerable to government sanctioned demolition and eviction? What is the implication of the particular case of Amir Khusro Park on the fate of shelters in Delhi’s other numerous informal geographies? The authors examine events that preceded and unfolded during and after the demolition through ethnographic research in Khusro Park, interviews with government officials and NGO social workers, and legal analysis of both Supreme and High Court Orders and policies that assign powers to various federal, state and municipal land owning agencies. The report finds that Khusro Park residents’ Court-substantiated, though broadly defined, rights to live in shelters and urban informal settlements were violated by government agencies, such as DDA. Such government agencies are permitted to undermine general rights urban poor people have to city spaces and resettlement through the existence of specific provisions that categorize jhuggi and shelter residents on government land ‘encroachers’. The authors conclude that due process measures of DUSIB’s current resettlement policy – land surveys, provision of notice and rehousing – should be based on a thorough understanding of (a) types and nature of settlements along the informal urban housing continuum (b) infrastructure and services used by residents and (c) the nature of contracts between (i) state and federal agencies and (ii) government agencies and NGOs that authorize land use and service provision.
Topic:
Government, Poverty, Public Policy, Resettlement, Urban, Informal Settlement, and Homelessness
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Asia

3. The Connection Between Homelessness, Immigration, and Displacement

Author:
Cat Galley
Publication Date:
03-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
Abstract:
This year, The Center on Human Rights Education chose the theme of DISPLACEMENT to investigate and research in the context of human rights. To begin under this theme, we began with homelessness and evolved into immigration. We focused on homelessness in the context of the Denver-metro area and the state of Colorado. Immigration held a national focus during the winter quarter. In the spring, COHRE will investigate into the topic of refugees and displacement. Throughout the Fall Quarter, the connections between displacement and homelessness came to be understood. On a more national scale, in 2013, there were approximately 610,042 homeless individuals. This number includes US citizens, immigrants, and refugees.
Topic:
Human Rights, Immigrants, Displacement, and Homelessness
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Becoming Homeless, Surviving Homelessness: The lives of six working homeless men in Yamuna Pushta, Delhi

Author:
Ashwin Parulkar
Publication Date:
04-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
This working paper from CPR’s and TISS' Understanding Metropolitan Homelessness project tells stories of six migrant homeless men from Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland who live, for various durations, in shelters along the western bank of the Yamuna river in North Delhi, locally referred to as ‘Yamuna Pushta’. Through tracing their journeys from villages and towns to Delhi’s streets, the paper explores how these men became homeless and how they survive homelessness in Delhi. This project, which is funded by ICSSR and is being conducted by CPR and TISS is led by Partha Mukhopadhyay and Ashwin Parulkar at CPR and Tarique Mohammed at TISS. A key objective of the project in general, and this paper in particular, is to better understand the structural causes of homelessness (e.g. poverty, unemployment) and how these are interlinked – through capturing the lived experiences of the homeless in their voice. This research aims to inform successful policy and implementation responses to address the current ineffectiveness of outreach efforts to homeless people in Delhi, despite interventions by the Supreme Court and support schemes designed by the government. The six stories in the paper uncover conditions, and combinations, of extreme poverty and physical abuse experienced by these men in their native places before they left home. It traces how they secure jobs, and survive, in daily wage, informal economies without housing, as well as access social services like shelter, health and drug de-addiction programs to endure the streets of Delhi. According to a 2010 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) survey, 87% of nearly 55,955 homeless adults worked jobs in the informal economy, entailing ‘the most rigorous activities which are essential for movement and building in the city.’ This paper describes in detail the varied experiences these six men have in such jobs that they find through contractors in informal labour ‘markets’ (mandis); as cooks and servers in small eateries (dhabas), and as wedding catering party workers. Through their trajectories, Parulkar also explores differences between working homeless men who return home to support families and those who have no ties with their native places and live on the streets indefinitely. For a sense of how these men became homeless and the work conditions they experience while homeless, listen to audio samples of interviews (above) conducted during field research.
Topic:
Migration, Poverty, Social Policy, Unemployment, and Homelessness
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Asia

5. Homelessness and Human Rights

Author:
Joey White
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
Abstract:
For many who have not experienced homelessness its causes lead to stigma and prejudice. But, with 78% of workers in the U.S. living paycheck to paycheck — the probability of experiencing homelessness is more common than most realize. At COHRE we noticed a disconnect between human rights discussions and homelessness. Over the next 5 weeks we have set out to focus on the effects homelessness has on human rights, as well as ways to promote human rights in our community through education on the realities homelessness.
Topic:
Human Rights, Poverty, Welfare, and Homelessness
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Homelessness & Youth

Author:
Ally Walker
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
Abstract:
The experience of homeless individuals, youth or adults, is as multifaceted and unique as each person. There is not one type of young person who is homeless or one cause for their homelessness. COHRE had the pleasure of sitting down with Cheryl Secorski, Homeless Programs Specialist for Youth at the state of Colorado’s Office of Homeless Youth Services, to get a better understanding of youth homelessness, how the State of Colorado works to prevent homelessness and what people can do to help.
Topic:
Human Rights, Poverty, Youth, and Homelessness
Political Geography:
United States, North America, and Colorado

7. Homelessness & Women

Author:
Lauren Palarino
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
Abstract:
In the Denver Metro Area out of 3336 people who are homeless surveyed, 30.2% are women and nationally, single women are the fastest growing population of homeless in the United States and face unique challenges regarding healthcare, safety, and childcare. These needs are often unaddressed by shelters and instead can alienate women who are unable to find the help they need. The reasons women are homeless are as diverse, but one in four women report domestic violence as the main factor in their current homeless situation resulting in health disparities and trauma left unaddressed. Lack of education prevents women from finding employment and gaining income and rising costs of living. Understanding women’s specific problems associated with being homeless can help us empathize with them and to try and help.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Poverty, Gender Based Violence, and Homelessness
Political Geography:
United States, North America, and Colorado

8. Homeless LGBTQ Youth

Author:
Lauren Palarino
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
Abstract:
One of the most prevalent communities in the homeless population are those who are LGBTQ. In statistics with homeless youth who are aged 12 to 24 years old, LGBTQ individuals have 40% of the population despite them being only 7% of the general youth population. Once they become homeless they have higher risks of unsafe sexual behavior, victimization, mental health issues, and a predictor of engaging in crime than their housed counterparts.
Topic:
Human Rights, Youth, LGBT+, and Homelessness
Political Geography:
Global Focus

9. How is Denver combating mental illness in the homeless population?

Author:
Cat Galley
Publication Date:
11-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
Abstract:
As we have seen in the previous weeks, there are many causes to homelessness, substance abuse, trauma, an unstable household, and mental illness. In Denver, 56% of the homeless population have one thing in common, mental illness. Though others are prevalent, post-traumatic stress disorder is seen in many homeless individuals. This is due to the constant sleeping outside, harassment, childhood trauma, and general instability that plagues the life of someone on the streets. Without proper care, many individuals with PTSD turn to drugs or alcohol to cope.
Topic:
Human Rights, Mental Health, Homelessness, and Public Health
Political Geography:
North America, Colorado, and United States of America