Cape Town – The Fish Hoek Community Policing Forum (CPF) has come under fire for labelling the homeless as criminals and asking residents not to “feed or support individuals walking through residential areas or those begging at street intersections, outside shopping malls and other public places”.
The organisation believes this creates “a nice place to be” for the homeless.
The CPF wrote: “You may have noticed that there is an increasing number of homeless/street people back on the streets in the Fish Hoek valley.
"Their presence here is driven by the residents who continue to feed them and support them.
“By you doing so, their numbers will continue to grow as they in turn will spread the word that this is ‘a nice place to be’ and this will only lead to an increase in their numbers in the streets of Fish Hoek and the problems associated with this.”
CPF chairperson Andre Blom said: “The homeless people from Strandfontein (site) are walking through every avenue of Fish Hoek. A higher percentage of them are criminals.”
Community Chest board chairperson Lorenzo Davids said the CPF’s statement went against resetting the class divide.
“It’s discouraging that this is out there as a message that discourages public engagement and public sensitivity to the plight of other people. It entrenched a class and culture agenda, and that is unfortunate,” Davids said.
Ladles of Love founder Danny Diliberto said more needed to be done to better co-ordinate the feeding of homeless people.
“Not feeding the homeless is definitely not the solution. I also don’t encourage giving food at traffic lights, it does make it more difficult to give food when people are dispersed.
"I’m working mainly through shelters to create more structured soup kitchens around the City,” Diliberto added.
Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez’s spokesperson, Joshua Chigome, said they had been made aware of the statement and would investigate.
Mayco member for community services and health Zahid Badroodien said the City’s position has always been to ensure that homeless people were given a “hand up, instead of a handout”.
“The latter often increases the risk of prolonged homelessness. We encourage residents to donate to registered organisations working with street people, instead of direct handouts.
"We support the call being made by the Fish Hoek CPF and we hope that other CPFs
and civic associations follow this call
to support the City’s Give Dignity
campaign.”
In Muizenberg Park, a group
of homeless people protested on
Saturday, calling on the City to
provide them with shelter.
The City said last week it
was finalising the closure of the
Strandfontein temporary shelter for
street people, with the site expected
to be empty by Wednesday.
While many who were housed
at Strandfontein have opted to
return to the streets, the mayoral
committee has given the go-ahead
for the procurement of prefabricated
structures to be placed on vacant
City land next to existing shelters
where this is a viable option.
The Muizenberg Improvement
District (MID) said the homeless
coming to Muizenberg Park was
“fast-becoming a major health risk
to the homeless and the surrounding
community”.
In a statement, MID said 40
individuals were currently sleeping
in a few tents erected in the park
by a community organisation with
no access to food, clean water or
ablution facilities.
“The park is
rapidly being overrun with litter and
human faeces due to all public toilets
in Muizenberg being locked due to
the lockdown,” MID said.
It said the City gave assurances
that a safe place in Muizenberg
would be erected by May 20, but
there still wasn’t an agreement on a
location.
Badroodien said the MID was
informed the homeless who
made their way back to the park
were the individuals who opted to
leave Strandfontein and the Social
Development and Early Childhood
Development Department was
working on the issue.