GEORGE NEWS - The most important outcome of the Garden Route Homelessness Conversation in George on Monday 20 July was agreement among the participants that the region needs a co-ordinated strategy to tackle the problem of the increasing numbers of homeless people in the area.
The event, hosted at the DR Mother Church's Langhuis by the Christian Rehabilitation Ministries to the Homeless in George (Cremhog), brought together representatives from municipalities, churches, NGOs, academics, community organisations and people who experienced homelessness.
Cremhog's general manager, André Olivier, said the discussions produced valuable information and practical ideas that now need to be translated into action.
"One clear reality that emerged is that, at present, no one is willing to take responsibility for the overarching strategy, and we need a body to take responsibility for leading it," he said.
Olivier committed Cremhog to working with other stakeholders to help establish such a co-ordinating structure.
"The discussions highlighted three urgent needs across the Garden Route: a dedicated drug rehabilitation centre, affordable residential care for elderly people with low incomes and safe overnight spaces where homeless people can sleep instead of on the streets," he said.
This house was built for a woman who came off the street to Cremhog's iThemba Centre. She has found a job and now, with a roof over her head, she is independent. Photo: Supplied
The speakers had varying approaches to homelessness, but everyone agreed that it cannot be solved by law enforcement alone. Mossel Bay's Mayor Dirk Kotzé said municipalities spend enormous resources responding to homelessness, yet see limited long-term results because the underlying causes are social.
Kotzé described how Mossel Bay has invested in a homeless haven, partnerships with churches and NGOs, profiling homeless people together with the Department of Social Development and reintegration programmes. He said no municipality can solve homelessness on its own. "There needs to be a process where there's a social part."
George Council's speaker, Sean Snyman, shared that he had actually been homeless and had lived on the streets 17 years ago. He said the fact that he was unable to beg in the poor community where he had lived was part of his saving grace. "If somebody had given me R50 every day, I probably wouldn't be where I am today."
He said addiction has become one of the biggest drivers of chronic homelessness, and rehabilitation must be part of any long-term solution. "You cannot teach a person on drugs anything," he said. "The only thing he's thinking about is his next fix."
Cremhog currently serves about 100 meals a day, six days a week, to people living on the streets. Photo: Supplied
Prof Stephan de Beer, director of the Centre for Homelessness at the University of Pretoria, said homelessness has many causes, including unemployment, housing shortages and unaffordability, family breakdown, substance abuse and mental illness. "It's a complex thing. Even the person we think deserves it least is a human being that needs to be treated with dignity."
De Beer proposed that the Garden Route should develop its own local model based on collaboration between the government, civil society, churches and researchers. "I think something special can happen here."
John Hopkins, a director at U-Turn Homeless Ministries in Cape Town, also said responses to homelessness should be collective and should focus on creating pathways that help people leave the streets permanently.
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