'Current strategies and policies keep people living on the streets trapped in homelessness, stuck in a never-ending cycle of streets, safe spaces, and shelters.’ Picture: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
This coming Thursday is World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day. It is highly significant that these two days fall on the same date, as it is crucial to recognise the correlation between the two.
Most people are aware of one common connection — the one that politicians are eager to exploit to their own advantage by distorting the reality.
They spin the narrative that most people are on the streets because they are drug addicts, and as a result of their drug addiction, they develop mental health issues, becoming a danger to themselves and others.
This forms part of their "Homeless Gevaar," which they feed into communities to the point where people feel the need to protect themselves against "the homeless," who, in this narrative, have all become criminals.
One aspect of this narrative is true: current strategies and policies keep people living on the streets trapped in homelessness, stuck in a never-ending cycle of streets, safe spaces, and shelters.
They do not see individuals in need of specific support, but instead view them collectively as "the homeless," a group that must be further ostracised, kept out of sight, and used for political gain when convenient.
Because of this system, people who society has rejected and made outcasts because of their mental health challenges become part of "the homeless." Under these circumstances, they begin self-medicating with cheap and easily accessible street drugs, which only exacerbates their struggles.
However, as with everything related to homelessness, rather than blaming individuals for bad choices or mistakes, we should be asking: what choices did we, as a society, offer these individuals?
The reality is that the majority of people facing mental health challenges ended up on the streets with those challenges because we, as a society, rejected them.
They do not deserve to spend the rest of their lives on the streets or in places such as safe spaces and shelters, where their conditions are often worsened by others who have no understanding of what they are going through.
Another reality is that many people confronting mental health issues have formed relationships with others in similar situations and often have children. This makes it virtually impossible to accommodate them under the current model we use to house those living on the streets.
When we examine the numbers of people living on the streets, those facing mental health challenges make up the third-largest group, following the elderly as the largest group and the disabled as the second-largest.
It is quite striking that people fail to see how easily we could begin reducing the number of people living on the streets.
If we merely found ways to provide safe, secure, private, affordable, supported, and sustainable accommodation for these three large groups — those we have been led to believe are all part of "the homeless" and are drug addicts and criminals — we would be more than halfway towards addressing homelessness in Cape Town.
With this in mind, and in an attempt to change the narrative, my organisation, CM Homeless Solutions, has decided to take action and demonstrate how things can be done differently and sustainably.
We have identified ten adults, all of whom are not only facing homelessness but also struggling with mental health challenges.
There are two couples and two abused mothers, who together also have six children.
We have secured private, safe, secure, dignified, and sustainable rooms for them to stay in.
We are in the process of raising the R7,500 it will cost to accommodate the ten adults (the children stay for free). This will cover rental assistance for the first month.
They all receive grants and will be able to pay their own rent from the second month of accommodation onwards.
We have also secured a grocery sponsor for their first month, and they will have access to support services such as a social worker, occupational therapist, harm reduction therapist, and psychiatrist for as long as they may need these services.
The rental agreement has been negotiated for a one-year period.
This is how we believe these three large groups amongst the homeless should be accommodated, with communities playing an integral part in the solution.
Politicians will never address homelessness.
We would be better served if homelessness was addressed by ward councillors and communities, including churches, safety and security agencies, organisations, ratepayers, businesses, and those living on the streets.
Should you wish to donate towards the R7,500 we need to rehome the 10 homeless adults facing mental health challenges and their six children on World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day, please contact me at therehomingcollectivenpccarlos@gmail.com or 071 341 3378, or donate to: CM Homeless Solutions Tymebank 678910, Acc: 5300 1069 559, ref: WHD
* Mesquita is a previously homeless man and founder of Outsider an organisation focused on enlightening people on homelessness and on accommodating those living on the streets in a dignified and sustainable manner.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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