Part one of this column can be found here, “Homelessness: Offering temporary solutions but expecting long-term results”.
Demands for a better system that sees less chronic homeless people on our streets and is more effective and sustainable in keeping them off these have snowballed, and the City, now under pressure from all sides, is unknowingly expecting a well-entrenched system of temporary assistance and lack of sustainability to provide the permanent solutions the public are demanding. This is just not possible.
I see the same service providers that stood up at The Inkathalo Conversations and complained about the temporary nature of accommodating the homeless, trying to keep up appearances in attempts to retain their funding and creating false expectations of the impact certain programmes have or will have on those living on the street and their communities, when they well know that not to be the case.
The sad reality is these programmes are all short-lived and only a handful have ever truly benefited from them.
And these are individuals, hand-picked for specific skills, and which ultimately remain in the employ of that service provider funded from one funded project to the next.
I can guarantee you when one of these programmes is started, there are hardly ever any participants that are taken directly off the streets, and those that are will more often than not still be there after the programme, or maybe have managed to get into a safe space.
The hypocrisy is unbelievable. No one is raising their voice to highlight the fact that the upliftment and empowerment service provision to the homeless has over the years adapted to the temporary and ineffective nature of our housing of the homeless, and is mostly just paying lip service to the impact they should have.
Should we arrive at a point where we get the accommodation issue sorted, and we have a ladder of homeless accommodation in place, we are then going to sit with another challenge, in that the homeless accommodation ladder, to be effective and sustainable, needs residents that are constantly growing in both financial as well as social terms.
For that to happen, the programmes being developed and offered to the homeless must take into consideration and ensure that these individuals are able to move up the accommodation ladder until they reach financial independence, and can afford to move into partially supported accommodation and eventually independent living.
Current programmes allow service providers to hide behind a veil of services being offered, when truth be told, all they are doing is providing a cheap labour force to government entities for a limited period, with little or no long-term value for the homeless person.
These temporary employment opportunities last an average between three and six months, during which the homeless are then suddenly expected to pay rent at the shelter, and “coincidentally” the programme almost always ends at the time that the individual’s stay at the shelter also expires. And so where are they to go from there?
The time has come for those professing to be offering services to uplift and empower the homeless, to take a good look at the services and programmes they are offering, and be brutally honest about that, as they were in criticising the limiting and limited accommodation options on offer in the sector at Inkathalo and beyond.
You cannot expect the one to change and not the other. We now face yet another uphill battle in showing how ineffective and unsustainable some of these “opportunities” are that are being so proudly offered to the homeless to consider.
If you really want to gainfully employ people and make a positive impact on reducing chronic homelessness, you need to look no further than the homeless themselves.
Look at how they survive, how they work. What motivates them to get up every morning, what pleases them, and what do they despise, and therein you will find lasting solutions.
Who are we trying to fool, offering EPWP (the Expanded Public Works Programme) as an option and mourning the demise of PEPs (Public Employment Programmes), as if these are really the type of empowerment and employment programmes that will help us eradicate chronic homelessness?
The opposite is true. I say this to you as a homeless man that lived on the streets of Cape Town and that knows the drill and its impact. Ignore this advise at your own peril.
Shocked and disappointed?
SO AM I
* Carlos Mesquita and a handful of others formed HAC (the Homeless Action Committee) that lobbies for the rights of the homeless. He also manages Our House in Oranjezicht, which is powered by the Community Chest. He can be reached at [email protected].
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.
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