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“Beating homelessness together” was the aim of a community meeting organised by a non-profit organisation (NPO) U-Turn on Tuesday 12 October.
The NPO, which this year celebrates 25 years, is on a mission to “equip street people with skills to overcome homelessness”.
It has been working around Claremont and the surrounding areas in the Southern Suburbs and the meeting was held at the Southern Sun Hotel.
Over 50 residents, community stakeholders, ward councillors and local police attended.
U-Turn CEO Jean-Ray Knighton Fitt and other role-players shared interesting insights on their research about homelessness in Cape Town.
“Over 14 000 people are homeless in Cape Town,” shared U-Turn member Jon Hopkins.
He added that they surveyed about 350 people on the streets and found that they live on an average income of R78 a day. “The median lives about four-and-a-half years on the streets. Homelessness is not a homogenous issue and needs different approaches to being overcome and we’ve found the best way to do so, is with a medium-term developmental approach,” Hopkins continued, referring to the means U-Turn promotes to reintegrate individuals into a functional society.
On his turn, Fitt told delegates that homelessness in Claremont and surrounds had trebled from a pre-Covid figure of around 100 to 300. He argued this increase is due to Claremont being a nice place to live in general, “and other reasons relate to low gang activity and control over homeless people, making it a safer place for them to seek shelter”.
“That’s why we’ve had an increase in bed spaces at U-turn and Haven shelters of 150 beds.”
Fitt touched on the topic of “irresponsible compassion” prevalent in Claremont exacerbating homelessness by giving cold cash, clothes or food, etc., without genuine involvement, undermining the need to inspire change in street people’s norms and habits.
“Our research purports that 86% of our graduates stay sober. This year, we’ve won two awards: MTN Award for Social Change 2022 and second prize at the International Journal on Homelessness Conference in Chicago for the research poster competition. Our daytime attendance increased from 40 to 80 clients on a daily average. For entrance, we favour individuals from Claremont and immediate surrounds.”
Ward 59 councillor Mikhail Manuel put in a word of appreciation towards U-Turn, saying: “It’s a model that should be replicated everywhere in the Western Cape”.
His sentiment was echoed by his Ward 58 counterpart Katherine Christie.
She regards U-Turn “as the best” in beating red tape entanglements in social services.
The Vispol Commander of Claremont police Lt Col Marnus Fourie, however, told attendees a lot of his local crime prevention concerns stem from U-Turn while giving the NPO its due credit.
“The methodology of U-Turn makes sense; they’re taking people off the streets and basically putting them in a programme. The programmes are incentivised as they work for food or a place to sleep or piece of clothing and ablution facilities. Out of all the homeless facilities in Cape Town, they’re probably the only one that really incentivises people to truly get off the system,” he said.
Fourie highlighted that, to him, a clear distinction between beneficiaries genuinely trying to kick their addictions versus those who are likely criminals capable of violence, is needed.
“The downside of U-Turn (and I haven’t changed my tune after four years in Claremont) is what they call their ‘outlet’ facility where street people register to a programme, get clothing and a meal and shelter for the night. But the next morning they’re off the programme and running around and committing crime. It, unfortunately, attracts opportunists,” he fretted.
Fourie believes this attracts a lot of street people to Claremont.
“Before Covid, we only had just over 30 chronically homeless people in Claremont whom we knew by name. Now, we have over 300, most of whom commit crime.”
He alleged that U-Turn, despite its good intent, attracts people from all over to access the benefits, “but they don’t stay there long. The next morning they go out and commit a crime. It starts with petty crime and eventually escalates to violent crimes, like murder.”
The example he used here was the murder of a beloved Claremont waiter Raymond Matusa whose body was found dead in Frederick Street on Thursday, 24 August (“Jacket links two men to murder”, People’s Post, 29 August). “The best example is grounded in the Matusa murder in which one of the two men was actually a member of U-Turn and got arrested for being in possession of stolen property (on 23 August). He was released the next day and continued to commit a crime which escalated to a murder (Thursday 24 August).
“That is the part the community does not like to hear. Claremont [police] don’t possess the resources to deal with a massive influx of street people. There is a direct link between the presence of U-Turn as well as the crime in Claremont.”
Apart from that, Fourie seconds U-Turn in warning the community to be more actively involved in addressing homelessness: “The caring people of Claremont love to help, but they tend to throw money at problems. Instead, they should volunteer and truly understand these social conundrums on a deeper, practical level to know what’s best for their community and all who live in it.”
