Outcry over City of Cape Town’s ’anti-poor’ attitude toward the homeless

Cape Town – Asking residents and businesses to complain about homeless people only fuels the existing prejudice that they carry, say activists and human rights organisations, as outcry grows over the City of Cape Town’s form to lodge complaints about street people.

People have been urged by the Cityof Cape Town to detail their concerns over homeless people and, once submitted, the form will be sent to the City’s representatives.

Community activist Toni Tresadern said, having worked with the homeless for the past six years, he has noticed how the City “always waits until winter starts setting in to harass, intimidate and confiscate from some of the most vulnerable in society, being our homeless folk”.

He has many projects involving children in Elsies River and Delft.

Ladles of Love founder Danny Diliberto said: “Until we look at different ways to make homelessness better we will always have the problem”.

“If we do not try different ways of making homelessness better, they are just sending out these forms pointlessly and getting the community to adopt a stance that is against the homeless people. Allow people to live on the street with more dignity – if you don’t want tents on our streets, offer an alternative, ” Diliberto said.

South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) commissioner Chris Nissen said they were looking into the matter.

Isa Jacobson, of Sea Point For All, said the money the City was spending on its court case against a gruop of 11 homeless people to uphold their “anti-poor” by-laws could be spent on housing, social work, skills development, and more.

“This week we tried to help a man in his seventies. He shouldn’t be on the street. He shouldn’t have had to suffer abuse. Why isn’t the City coming up with humane responses? Not a space exposed to the elements like the so-called Safe Space. Why don’t they use the money that they spend on these draconian efforts to come up with dignified solutions to homelessness instead?” Jacobson asked.

The City yesterday said: “The City serves the whole of Cape Town and its constituents. The City is entitled to request information from all of its residents in order to assess the effect of homeless street people on its broader population.”

A portion of the form reads: “The City council is facing a new legal case to prevent the enforcement of parts of its democratically gazetted by-laws. This relates specifically to structures (and tents) that are being erected by street people in parks, public spaces and on pavements where you live, where you work, and where you go for recreation. As part of this process, the City Council is inviting ratepayers, residents and business owners to add their voices to the legal arguments that will be made to uphold the relevant by-laws,” reads the form.

Cape Times