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The recent High Court order that paves the way for the City of Cape to evict people from so-called ‘tent cities’ has been welcomed as well as caused a great deal of distress – depending on where you go to sleep at night. Most of us have never been subjected to spending a Cape winter in a makeshift tent on the sidewalk with only a cardboard box as a mattress, and therefore cannot understand the humiliation and despair, and deeper social issues that lead people to stay there.

On the other hand, ratepayers have become fed up with instances of vandalism and theft that are often associated with these ‘informal cities’, and are indeed reasonable in their expectations that the city protects neighbourhoods from the negative aspects associated with these communities. It is possible to retain your humanity and still not want a vagrant to build a shack in your kid’s playground, isn’t it?

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It’s against these two ‘needs and wants’ that the city is trying to find a way to solve its homelessness problem.  It’s a challenge so complex that often the courts are forced to make a decision on behalf of everyone.

The City of Cape Town announced this week that the Western Cape High Court has granted its application for eviction notices to be served at “various unlawful occupations in the Central Business District”.

It is however refreshing that the residents of these ‘tent cities’ have now also been asked how they feel about the move. After all, out of sight is not out of mind if you are the one having to ‘go away’.

“They must come and sit with us and listen to our stories. Then they will know the reasons why we are here … Some of us want to make an honest living … We need that little bit of help.

“Some of us go and scratch in bins. It’s like you take your own dignity and throw it to one side. It’s not easy to stay on the street. No one is protecting us, but we are trying to make an honest living. We are trying to keep this area clean, but no one sees that. They only want you to move away from here.”

One of the residents is David, 33, who has been living in Vredehoek for almost 9 years. He fled his neighbourhood of Kensington due to ongoing gang violence.

Although the city has been in contact, he says that they ‘fill in forms’, but nobody comes back to them with possible places to stay, so he continues to live on the streets.

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Several of the homeless, like Roslyn van Schalkwyk, who has moved to city-provided shelters before, but she says it is not a long-term solution.

“After a few months, they say you must go out. Where are you going to go? You’re going to end up back here. If the city offers us jobs, we will consider relocating”

The city has been doing its ‘level best’ to offer care and help in getting people off the streets, according to Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

“Where this has been persistently refused, we must now ask the courts for the order we are seeking. No person has the right to reserve a public space as exclusively theirs, while indefinitely refusing all offers of shelter and social assistance.

“Our city’s public places serve important social and community purposes and must be open and available for all. Illegal occupations of City open spaces impact the safety of traffic and pedestrians, as well as local businesses critical to growing the economy.”

The city has allocated R77 million towards social interventions and creating safe spaces for these people. A 300 bed ‘safe space’ has been created in Greenpoint as well as a 120-bed facility in Culemborg along the foreshore. Whether the intended beneficiaries will make use of this is unsure. Some are doubtful.

“The demand for shelter at the moment far outstrips the supply. Whilst we welcome the City and Province investing in further safe spaces, it is unclear where people are expected to stay. It is also very likely that without a developmental plan in place, the street-based people will return back to the street in due course.”

Nobody wants to be homeless, and the city has a responsibility towards its citizens regardless of whether they can afford a brick home. But owning a brick home does not mean that you have to forfeit your rights either. So perhaps the start of a solution would be for homeowners to engage with the ‘homeless’ more, and not just leave it up to a judge to decide.

Ubuntu is not yet dead, and we all have a responsibility to look out for each other. But how this is to be done in a way that works for everyone is still unclear.

[source:sapeople]