A place for street people to shower

Cape Town - 150326 - Pictured is the men's showers. Ablution facilities are available in the mornings during the week to the homeless living in the Cape Town CBD. Reporter: Helen Bamford Picture: David Ritchie

Cape Town - 150326 - Pictured is the men's showers. Ablution facilities are available in the mornings during the week to the homeless living in the Cape Town CBD. Reporter: Helen Bamford Picture: David Ritchie

Published Mar 30, 2015

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Cape Town - If you’re dirty and you smell, you’re not likely to get a job.

That’s the harsh reality for thousands of South Africans who don’t have access to running water.

Sanitation problems have become political, with the so-called poo-protesters striking a chord with many people living in impoverished areas.

It’s also a daily reality for people living on Cape Town’s streets, which is why an organisation in the heart of the city is looking to expand its ablution facilities to cater to more people.

Fagma Petersen, 40, knows what it’s like to wake up after a night on the street, stiff and sore and just wanting a shower.

Her “bedroom” for many years was the bus terminus on the Grand Parade where she slept on a piece of cardboard.

Now she hands out soap and toiletries and manages the ablution facility at the Carpenter’s Shop on Roeland Street where anyone living on the street can come in to shower and wash their clothes between 7.30am and 10am.

It might seem like a small thing but social worker Karen Cain said eight people had been placed in employment so far this year after starting off by popping in for a shower.

She cites Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where people are motivated by satisfying basic needs such as food, water and shelter, before meeting higher-level needs such as self-actualisation.

Former professionals mingle with sex workers, drug addicts, alcoholics, and gambling and sex addicts.

More and more people are on the streets after being retrenched.

There are currently three showers for men and two for women, as well as six metal basins for washing clothes.

Most mornings there is a queue of 35 to 40 people.

Petersen keeps track of how long they take to make sure everyone gets a turn. “I give them 10 minutes then I knock.”

For Jane Mills, marketing consultant at the organisation, the issue is human rights.

She recalls how struck she was emotionally by one of the men who explained what it was like being dirty and living on the streets.

“He told me to imagine having no water and nowhere to wash your clothes. And he said that if you smell you don’t get a job.”

They are hoping to renovate the shower block and have embarked on a project called Fresh Start where people are asked to contribute R100 a month.

Director Dee Wills said they had a database of 780 people but usually had between 35 and 40 a day using the ablutions.

They can also see a social worker if they want to.

If someone is new on the street – if they’ve just been released from prison, for instance, or if they’re from upcountry and have been duped into a job that turns out badly – the social workers try to intervene quickly before they become accustomed to life on the street.

Cain said the older generation gave them feedback about newcomers.

“They bring them to us and say they don’t want them to end up like us, like jintoes (prostitutes).”

Wills said some people accused them of encouraging homelessness by offering services like this.

“But they’re a community in our city, whether we like it or not.”

Cape Argus

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