Many interventions to assist people who find themselves on the streets fall short of restoring their dignity and independence. Carlos Mesquita, Founder of The Rehoming Collective, Housing Action Committee (HAC) and Outsider and who has lived experience of homelessness, explains what can be done to solve this societal challenge.
What is the extent of homelessness in South Africa currently?
This is extremely difficult to ascertain as there is no credible data on homelessness. This means millions are being spent on interventions based on assumptions and misconceptions. Outsider started an assessment of people living on the streets of Cape Town called Everybody Counts. This count was led by individuals with a lived experience of being homeless, which is imperative as these are the only individuals who know where to find people living on the streets and are trusted enough to carry out assessments. During this poll, 24 808 people were physically counted and 14 002 filled in questionnaires. This makes Everybody Counts the largest and most comprehensive database of people living on the streets in South Africa.
What is the government’s approach to homelessness and are its interventions helping or harming people without homes?
Understanding homelessness is easier when we learn that the strongest, most enduring predictor of homelessness is not substance use or mental illness – it is poverty. The common denominator is usually rejection, which makes homelessness a societal rather than individual problem. Many have families who are unwilling or unable to accommodate them if they have lost a job, experienced the death of a partner, are elderly, disabled or suffer from addictions and have mental health issues. Unfortunately, despite the preamble to our Constitution, which itself speaks directly to the state’s responsibility towards our most vulnerable citizens, our government has never developed a policy on homelessness or even determined under which department it should fall. NPOs are usually tasked with addressing homelessness using funds allocated by national government to provincial governments.
The Government of National Unity (GNU) has been tasked with drafting a homeless policy discussion paper. What would you like to see coming out of the process?
The GNU has inherited the work started by the previous administration towards developing a policy on homelessness. Unfortunately, this process has thus far been flawed. My expectation is that the GNU will take the criticism levelled at the process by myself and other roleplayers seriously and ensure a credible count is undertaken. Due to years of inactivity, and ineffective municipal and nonprofit interventions, we are faced with unserviced, unmanaged, unhygienic, unsightly and unsafe homeless encampments throughout our cities.
You have made recommendations to the government about funding more community-based interventions that recognise the symbiotic relationship between housed and unhoused people. What are some of these interventions?
The Encampment Management Programme (EMP) could counter an unprecedented rise in homelessness. The EMP is intended to provide a short-term emergency response as housing services and initiatives come online, creating new pathways to permanent supportive housing for unhoused people. We should empower ward councillors with funding to help form community bodies to address homelessness. These should involve, among other roleplayers, businesses, faith-based organisations, ratepayers, safety and security agencies as well as unhoused people themselves.
Other possibilities include converting government buildings that are currently empty and working with low-cost accommodation venues to provide discounts for people living in crisis on the streets – for example, we have located 11 landlords across Cape Town who are prepared to make rooms available for R1 500 a month per single room and R2 000 per double room. We source funds from donors to pay for the first month’s accommodation, groceries and toiletries. We ensure the tenants have identity documents and can register for grants, since most are able to start paying their landlords by the second month. We also provide access to a harm reduction therapist, occupational therapist, social worker and doctor. Since the beginning of 2024, we have managed to accommodate 228 individuals, 191 of whom are now self-sustainable and 23 of whom have now moved into their own accommodation. Private, lockable rooms and independence bring dignity to people who find themselves on the streets and give them agency regarding what their future might look like.
Corporates can play a meaningful role to address homelessness – what would you recommend they do to assist people without homes become more secure and reintegrate with their communities?
Corporates tend to be guided by what is promoted as successful, but I look forward to the day when they start working with organisations or projects that are seeking alternatives to what is essentially a failed system. The largest groups of individuals living on the streets, namely pensioners, the disabled, abused mothers with children and families who have lost their homes due to job losses, should be able to live independently and privately with the support services that they require. Corporates should prioritise these financially constrained groups to find accommodation for them.
The projects most likely to succeed are those run or managed by people who have a lived experience of homelessness. I would also recommend that companies hire at least one person with such lived experience.
CARLOS MESQUITA
- Founder of The Rehoming Collective, HAC and Outsider
- therehomingcollectivenpccarlos@gmail.com