HOMELESS MUST BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION

THIS week, I more than ever identify as a homeless person. Some will probably be shaking their heads and thinking: “yes, sure”.

Reality check: I stay under exactly the same conditions as the staff and the residents in the same house, and like them, I am at risk of landing back up on the streets.

This became real to me when residents wanting to relaunch a park for recreational activities asked The Re-homing Collective to relocate the homeless to Rainbow House.

Rainbow House had just been taken over by us to be used for those that would work on a government project for the homeless for eight months. Not eager to see the homeless group suffer, some being thrown to the wolves as it were, I said yes.

During the first month, they paid and even drove a marketing campaign that made them out to be the heroes. By the second month, the offer was reduced by half, and for the third month, they have reduced their contribution even further despite an undertaking that they would honour their agreement for the first three months of development. Now we can potentially all lose the roof over our heads.

Those who have been following the progress of the homeless dumped on the streets by the City after the Strandfontein debacle should understand why I made my original comment.

This same group eventually had to seek the help of lawyers when their landlord and benefactor decided to change their notice period from three months to one. The threat of being back on the streets haunts all who have been homeless.

The reason is obvious and must be addressed: support services. This is not merely a City responsibility. It’s also a provincial and national responsibility.

Last week, Professor Stefan de Beer invited me to a three-day conference to start work on a framework that would be, believe it or not, South Africa’s first national policy on homelessness.

It’s no wonder the City, which does have a policy on homelessness, is rudderless because we don’t have these policies where it matters – at a provincial and national level.

And I have learnt that the politically responsible people at provincial level are also not to be blamed.

How can we have a national conference of this significance with the focus being so heavily focused on Gauteng representation?

Yes, I was invited, but I don’t have any impact on policymaking and strategy development in the Western Cape.

Surely, Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez, who personally experienced the horror of homelessness, should have been part of this discussion?

And, of course, homeless people. The intellectuals were again talking the talk and using the lingo that they often do.

And remember, I have a degree in the social sciences achieved cum laude from the University of Pretoria, and I was not moved.

Please, everyone. You cannot think that by speaking to the homeless, you suddenly are an expert on homelessness. We can only achieve success if the homeless and rehomed are there to impact on these policies directly, or you again miss the boat. Learn from the City’s failures. I hope everyone concerned takes my rantings in this column as constructive criticism. There are too many lives at risk. We have successfully run these houses and the programmes for over a year-and-a-half. It’s been featured nationwide (hence my invitation to the national conference), yet, in all that time, we haven’t impressed on any of these levels to support new and internationally lauded programmes to rehome the homeless with dignity. Think people, think!