Homelessness, a social challenge for everyone

“The average person is just three months from being homeless.” This shocking statement was made by Melodie van Brakel, co-founder of the Tower of Life (TOL) shelters.

Around the world, people raised the issue of homelessness on 10 October. Locally the community came together to discuss the best way to help these most vulnerable members of our community.

The church on the corner of Church and Rissik Streets was packed with people who wanted to help, but sadly only two councillors showed up and no-one from Mogale City Local Municipality attended the community-wide meeting.

“We have a serious social challenge and need to find a solution as a community,” said Gert Jonker, co-founder of the Tower of Life shelters.

Various homeless and previously homeless residents stepped up to talk about their experiences on the street.

“I used to sleep in my car and sell our clothes just to make R10 to be able to afford overnight parking at Emperors Palace so we would have a safe place to sleep in our car,” one woman said.

A man spoke about how he lost his job last year and have been living on the streets since then, “I am surviving,” he said.

One shocking account was from a woman who lives on the street with her husband. She told the crowd how their possessions had been taken by the police and they had to wait for hours after being taken in the police. They were eventually dropped off on the street again, but without their belongings.

It might seem that their possessions are not valuable, but what they do have, is all they have. Without their ID books, which were also taken, they cannot go to the hospital for help or apply for work, among other things.

“There is the perception that people are lazy and need to find a job. Many people come to the West Rand because of job advertisements and opportunities. When they get here, they find it was a scam,” Melodie explained.

She went on to say that many of these people have used their last money to get here and cannot go back, so they end up on the streets of Krugersdorp.

Other contributing factors being poverty, disasters like the zama-zamas (illegal miners) of Makhulugama, abuse, people who get out of jail and have nowhere to go, People with addiction disorders and those who have endured severe trauma.

Janet Davidson, from the Tower of Life, read out statistics that were collected at the shelter. The statistics were gathered between January 2019 and September 2019 and for this period the TOL gave beds to 21 589 people, 17 875 of these being men and 2 645 being women. Shockingly, they had to provide beds to 588 boys and 526 girls as well.

Not everyone can pay the fee to sleep in the shelter every night, but they are usually sponsored. TOL has sponsored 5 202 people to sleep in the shelter during this time, at a cost of R125 245, which could have been used to help somewhere else. They sold 1 180 of the vouchers to sponsor someone for a night.

They served 36 545 meals and 15 908 people took a shower at the shelter.

Gert talked about the by-laws surrounding the homeless and said that no one is taking responsibility for the homeless issue. In Gauteng, it is near impossible to register an adult homeless shelter with the Department of Social Development, which in turn means that there is no way to get government assistance for these shelters.

Another issue that arose during the meeting is mental health issues. Many people land on the streets because of mental health issues, others develop these issues on the street. The trauma of being robbed, beaten and even raped causes these mental health issues. Sometimes the medicine for these issues is not available at government hospitals and then these people just have to get along without it.

There was also an open discussion during which the issue of working together was raised. Business owners and stakeholders in the homeless community want to work together to ensure that both parties are happy.

“We don’t have problems with the homeless people, but these people have businesses as well,” explained one business owner.

The main aim of the meeting however was to create a database of all the assistance available in the area. It was also decided to start a Mogale City Forum for Community Development, where future decisions about the homeless community can be made and problems attended to by all stakeholders.

If you would like to sponsor someone on the street with a night in a nice, warm bed, and a plate of hot food, please get in touch with one of the shelters in town and buy a voucher. Some of these shelters are the Tower of Life men’s shelter, the Tower of Life women’s shelter, the Christian Life Savers Foundation and the Salvation Army.

For more information, about Tower Of Life Women, contact Melodie on 082 459 5747, or, for Tower of Life Men, contact Gert on 082 900 7832 or Anton on 083 654 0806.