The only homeless shelter in Potchefstroom is overflowing, and the shelters outside of town are struggling to accommodate everyone.

Gretha Le Roux, founder of Hebron in Potchefstroom, says there is always a need for space, and they are always full. There are about 105 people in Hebron, and at least five people are turned away every day.

“We try to refer them to other places, but most places are full,” Le Roux says. That is so tragic.” Most often people are referred to the SAVF (South African women’s federation) in Carletonville and Lochvaal.

“When people come to spend the night, and we don’t have space, we don’t send them back on the street. We give them blankets and then they sleep on the couches,” says Sarina Swanepoel, a project manager at Hebron. The people then have to be taken back to town.

“We call other places first, and everyone tells us they’re full. [The people] are so desperate: they tell us they will sleep on the floor. We have to tell them, no,” Swanepoel says. “There are people who sleep on the front porch because some of them are in such a bad state that we first need to help them recover”.

Le Roux says there is never an empty bed for more than a day, especially over the festive season. “People don’t want to be alone on the street.”

Several organisations are working to establish shelters to alleviate the need.

Mandy de Wet, who is involved with Helpende Hand, Be the Change and Make a Difference, says local authorities have made a piece of land available for a shelter, but the establishment is yet to start.

“Everything takes time, there is no overnight solution,” De Wet says. “We need to look at the homeless from a different perspective. For example, drugs are a major issue in Potch, and some people will directly tell you they’re on heroin, and lots of times they don’t want to go to Hebron, because they don’t want to work.” (At Hebron, the focus is on helping people to become self-reliant.)

According to her, up to 50 homeless people of all ages cannot find accommodation on any given day. Most are between 35 and 50 years old, says De Wet, who also runs a soup kitchen with Be the Change and Make a Difference over weekends in Ikageng, where the shelter is to be established. She says they have already started gathering items to use in the planned shelter, but do not have enough funds to start building yet.

Trudie Botha, who is involved with Cleanup Potch and the Community Policing Forum, works with De Wet to establish shelters in the city to “lighten the social load”. Their aim is to provide job creation projects to promote self-sustainability. “We have received many donations [for the shelter]. We have never made so much progress as in the last four months,”  she says.

Trudie is hopeful that the shelter will be finished by March 2020. She says about 200 people live on the streets in Potchefstroom over the festive season.

Assisting the homeless should be a holistic process involving factors such as spiritual wellness, providing food and shelter and sanitation, Trudie says. “You can’t just give a sandwich and think you did your work.”

A lack of social workers and funds make providing shelter difficult. “The goal is to empower homeless people to become independent and without public funds and support, sustainability becomes an issue.”

Homeless children are also a huge concern in Potchefstroom. De Wet says there are not enough foster parents and the children’s homes such as Thakaneng are full. Trudie hopes to touch people’s hearts to register as foster parents.

She further says that homeless people should be reintroduced into society. “The longer people live on the streets, the more difficult it gets for them to reintegrate into society”.

“This is where we have to play a big role. The people are used to standing at traffic lights, they’re used to cursing the public and the public is used to cursing them, but why can’t we be ambassadors of these people instead of looking down on them,” Trudie asks, adding that  “you can’t tell a guy with hunger pains about the Lord, you have to choose the right moment, because at that moment they can’t hear you”.

Trudie says the planned projects will be strictly controlled. “When you start a project such as this [the shelter], there are many people who want to contribute, they just don’t know where.” However, if people see there is good management and control, then they get on board. Just giving people money on the streets feeds into the homeless problem.

Brigadier Steven Moodley, station commander of the Potchefstroom police department, says the Department of Social Development is the lead role player when it comes to facilities for the homeless. Trudie is working with Moodley and the South African Police Services, in conjunction with the Community Policing Forum and the municipality, on a project to establish a homeless shelter, essentially, “Hebron on a larger scale in Potchefstroom,” Moodley says.

He says they have been in consultation with the mayor, the directors of public safety, and local economic development concerning the Rietfontein farm, a piece of land in the Kenneth Kaunda District.

He agrees that people in Potchefstroom create dependency on the street by feeding and clothing homeless people.

“We need to rethink what we do for the homeless people, if we want to get rid of the problem of homelessness, we will need to look at other means of support,” Moodley says.

When the farm is up and running, people can be encouraged to go there for food and shelter. He urges the community to give money toward the development of the facility. “If you want to feel good about yourself, make a positive contribution towards uplifting the homeless people rather than just throwing money.”

Below is a video of one possible solution to the growing problem of homeless people.

https://www.facebook.com/WeNeedThisbyattn/videos/225089031326303/?v=225089031326303