‘Trauma is the problem’ — unpacking the factors behind homelessness in Cape Town

What are the causes of homelessness?

There is a wide range of factors that can result in a person losing their home. Phinius Sebatsane, an activist who has been working with unhoused communities in Cape Town for eight years, said it was often rooted in broken families and the resultant trauma.

“Abuse is a huge part of it, and that abuse leading to gangsterism, prison, ending up in the foster system… A lot of those people who have experienced trauma and are in safe spaces or in prison or in orphanages end up on the street because of a lack of reintegration programmes in those facilities,” he observed.

He said unemployment and land injustice were also causes. Often, unstable family situations are influenced by systemic issues such as access to employment and where people live.

Petrus (Whitey) Burger at the traffic light on the corner of Buitengracht and Strand Street in the Cape Town CBD, trying to get a few rands from passers-by to make it through a cold winter’s night on 24 July 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

“It’s not just one issue. There’s layers. We work with victims of human trafficking, prostitution, so that’s another thing. When people leave that industry, they end up on the street,” said Sebatsane.

“It is more systemic than it is an issue of an individual. We call it a ‘seed and soil problem’ because we believe that people succeed depending on where they are planted…

“Where people live matters. If people live in conditions where they are deprived of opportunities, we shouldn’t be surprised that people enter homelessness. We can’t expect people who are living in informal settlements not to end up homeless.”

He said the intense storms that hit Cape Town during the winter months, resulted in the displacement of thousands of people, and explained that homelessness was on the rise in part because people were staying in inhospitable living conditions.

“[There’s also] a lack of access to facilities for mental health because there are no affordable and accessible rehabs in our communities, where people can go to seek help. We have more prisons for the poor than we have rehabilitation for the poor, but imagine if people could go to a rehab … before they end up in prison. Or deal with their trauma before they get addicted and then commit a crime.”

There are no exact estimates as to how many people are living on the streets in Cape Town. The Western Cape government has stated that there are about 14,000 unhoused persons in Greater Cape Town, while the City of Cape Town puts the number at about 6,600.

Read more: Cold reality – many of us are closer to living on the street than we think

To what degree is substance abuse a causal factor in homelessness? How can this be addressed?

In a 2020 report by the nonprofit organisation U-turn, which tackles issues of homelessness, a survey of 350 people living on the streets in Cape Town found that 50% of respondents were experiencing “chronic homelessness”. This is when a person has been homeless consistently for at least a year — or repeatedly over several years — while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious mental illness, substance use disorder or physical disability.

Of the respondents, 64% had a current drug or alcohol addiction.

Fabian and his dog Lincoln on 25 July 2024. They have been living in a tent near the Mill Street bridge in Gardens for years after being evicted from nearby De Waal Park where he had previously stayed. (Photo: David Harrison)

People who had experienced trauma often turned to drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism, said Sebatsane. “Because of addiction, they end up losing everything that they have. Then they end up with nothing and then they end up on the street, and that’s when crime comes in.”

Unhoused persons may also turn to drugs or alcohol as a way of “escaping” the traumatic reality of what they experience on the street.

“They need an escape from their pain, and obviously drugs are an escape, but unfortunately they’re trying to solve a problem with a problem. I wouldn’t say drugs or addiction is the problem. I’d say trauma is the problem, because trauma leads to addiction,” said Sebatsane.

Part of the solution was “trauma-informed safe spaces”, he continued, with mental health and rehabilitative support services. Any approach to homelessness that does not include this is only dealing with the symptoms of the problem, and not its root causes.

“What we’re trying to do right now is address issues of trauma and mental health,” he said.

What are the demographics of homelessness in Cape Town?

In 2018, the City of Cape Town conducted research into the demographics of unhoused communities in the region. It found that 64% of those living on the street were male, 28% female and 8% “unspecified”.

A breakdown of the unhoused population by race showed that 55% were coloured people, 26% were black people and 4% were white people.

While these numbers are several years old, Sebatsane’s observations from his work with unhoused communities suggest that not much has changed. He said there were still more men on the street than women, and advocated for more resources to be directed towards assisting men in this position.

“There’s more men on the street, and unfortunately, because of mental health problems … [and] not having access to help, because of toxic masculinity as well, a lot of men are not very good at reaching out for help, so they end up ending up on the street because of ... not being able to be open about what they are dealing with,” he said.

“Most of these people are people of colour… mostly coloured people. But that is historical as well, because of the history of District Six, of the Cape Flats, of Pollsmoor [Prison]. You realise that the experience of a coloured person and a black person when it comes to apartheid is very different. The pain is very different.”

Men huddle around a fire for warmth on a rainy winter’s day at an encampment under a bridge in Strand Street, on 24 July 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

Sebatsane referenced the legacy of the “dop system” in the Western Cape, when employers on farms would pay workers of colour with cheap wine.

“You have this generational addiction and this generational trauma, bleeding on people. There’s not a lot of black people that are on the street … [and] you don’t see a lot of white people on the street. There’s a few, but the numbers are mostly coloured men who came out of prison, gangsterism, the foster system, who have not been able to access psychosocial services,” he said.

Are there people living on the street in Cape Town who are from other provinces and countries?

There are no data available to show the number of people from other provinces and countries who are living on the streets in Cape Town. Sebatsane said that while there was movement of people from other provinces and countries into the city, he did not believe they were contributing significantly to the levels of homelessness. He highlighted factors that have a far greater impact on the rise in homelessness, including:

• Increasing unemployment;


• A growing number of people experiencing poor living conditions;


• Low pay;


• The rising cost of living in Cape Town; and


• The prioritisation of tourism interests over housing issues for locals.

“I wouldn’t say homelessness is increasing in Cape Town because of people from the outside. I think homelessness has always been there. Cape Town is going through seasons where it’s more in their face and they don’t want to deal with that,” he said.

He noted that some foreign nationals were willing to accept work below minimum wage rates, which caused tension between them and local people. In those cases, he said the responsibility lay with the exploitative practices in private sectors.

What are the most practical and effective ways to assist when it comes to homelessness?

Daily Maverick spoke to Enrique Hermanus, the manager of MES Parow Centre of Hope, about the nonprofit organisation’s approach to getting people off the streets. MES pioneered the “safe space” concept for shelters, which has since been adopted by other organisations and cities, including the City of Cape Town.

MES has a presence in Cape Town, Gqeberha, Kempton Park and Johannesburg, and has focus groups ranging from children in early childhood development centres to assisting families in need.

Hermanus emphasised that there were different pathways out of homelessness for different people, as not every person was dealing with the same stressors. The organisation uses a four-phase model: outreach and relief, change readiness, work readiness and integration.

“Outreach and relief looks like us meeting people where they’re at, on the streets or wherever they might be, or people being referred to or walking to our house spaces. What then happens is that an assessment is done with a social worker… The social worker immediately will start with their IDP, which is an independent or individual development plan,” explained Hermanus.

Ayanda Nicholas Mazulu peers from under his basic plastic shelter on a traffic island on Helen Suzman Boulevard on 24 July 2024. Ayanda has lived on the streets around Cape Town since 1994. (Photo: David Harrison)

The IDP assesses the needs of the individual. These needs might include rehabilitation services, work readiness classes, trauma counselling and assistance with setting goals for the coming year.

“Change readiness is when the individual goes through an assisted programme with the social worker… Every single day, there’s group sessions, and there’s at least two individual sessions per week with the social worker. There’s voucher-earning opportunities,” said Hermanus.

The “work readiness” phase was an assisted programme with an earning component to it, he continued. Participants are placed at work sites with partner organisations or employers while continuing to work on their IDP. To migrate from change readiness to work readiness, a participant has to pass three consecutive randomised drug tests.

“Integration is a new beginning. It’s like new employment, new accommodation. I’ve been very privileged to witness a lot of that,” he said.

“We begin with the end in mind. We are seeing that somebody has transcended this when they’re sober, they’re managing their sobriety, they’ve found stable accommodation and they’ve found stable employment. Those have been our traditional success factors.

“However, we’re seeing an increasingly important one now is the sense of family relations, because you can be unemployable, you can not have a cent to your name, but if you have solid family structures, you’re not going to fall through the cracks.”

Sebatsane emphasised that there was no “quick fix” for homelessness, especially for individuals who have been living on the street for many years.

“What we’re trying to advocate for is that the organisations that are doing relief, that are in rehabilitation, that are doing integration, they need to work together.

“Businesses need to work together with churches. Churches need to work together with the government, and then NGOs need to work together with all these different people from different sectors, because it’s going to take more than one organisation or individual to end homelessness,” he said.

It was important to involve unhoused persons in the creation of solutions, said Sebatsane, as they often had insights into how to address their problems.

“We need to go upstream and ask why people fall into the river, rather than pulling people from the river. So, prevention is better than cure. Sometimes the city needs to invest more in education and health and social development in poor communities rather than policing poor communities,” he said.

Read more: Delays as City of Cape Town prepares to evict people from seven inner city sites, offering alternative living space at new shelter

Which NGOs tackle homelessness?

Key NGOs tackling homelessness in Cape Town include:

• U-turn, a nonprofit that aims to make an “effective life change pathway” accessible to every person experiencing homelessness;


• New Hope SA, which aims to create pathways out of homelessness through the use of “transitional homes” which can accommodate previously homeless individuals for six to 36 months; and


• MES, an organisation that aims to create effective and efficient pathways out of poverty.

Sebatsane noted that the priorities of organisations offering rehabilitative services to unhoused persons should be ensuring that they sleep well, eat good food and wear dignified clothing.

“If you don’t do these three things very well, do not expect people to open up about their own trauma, because how you treat people in these three things will tell you if they’re going to open up or they’re going to trust you,” he said.

Beyond this, there was a need to create a sense of community in rehabilitative spaces.

Sebatsane explained, “We need trauma-informed facilities with more social workers and psychologists, people who deal with a mental health emphasis… People need more than shelter. They need a sense of belonging. They need community. They need their traumas and their pain to be addressed.”

How many people has the City of Cape Town assisted out of homelessness on a sustainable basis?

The City of Cape Town provided a breakdown of the number of people who have been reintegrated into an independent housing situation through its Safe Spaces in recent years.

• Culemborg Safe Space on the Foreshore has reintegrated 640 people since 2018;


• Culemborg Parking Lot Safe Space has reintegrated 155 people since 2021;


• Paint City Safe Space in Bellville has reintegrated 253 people since 2020; and


• MES Safe Space in Durbanville has reintegrated seven people since April.

The city’s Safe Spaces are managed by external service providers, with the city overseeing the contracts using monitoring and evaluation tools aligned with the tender specifications.

“Operators are required to provide daily statistical reports and monthly performance reports. These reports are scrutinised and logged in the contract register monitoring system. City departments hold monthly meetings with operators to discuss performance and address any matters related to the operation of the safe spaces,” stated the city.

Are the city’s Safe Spaces less dignified than living on the street?

The nature of the facilities at the city’s Safe Spaces vary. The Culemborg Parking Lot Safe Space offers accommodation in prefabricated buildings, while the new Ebenezer Safe Space is a building in Green Point. The city has stated that the offer of Safe Space accommodation at any of its facilities is “materially and substantially better” than the conditions people experience on the street.

In July, Daily Maverick reported on allegations of poor and degrading living conditions at the Culemborg Safe Space on the Foreshore. Apart from a bridge about 15m up, the shelter at the Safe Space consists of corrugated iron roofs on poles, with no walls, and beds lined alongside one another underneath. Occupants claimed that beds and belongings got wet when it rained and that rats and other pests were getting into beds and had bitten some of those staying there.

Unenclosed shelter at the City of Cape Town Safe Space 1 Culemborg, under the Nelson Mandela Boulevard, 17 July 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

The city has since said that a plan is in the works to upgrade the shelters at the Culemborg Safe Space to include prefabricated buildings. It also stated that in terms of health and dignity, there was “no comparison” between what the city was offering at the shelter and what the occupants endured living on the street. It said the test for what was “just and equitable” was whether the Safe Spaces were better than the previous living conditions of the occupants.

Sebatsane said it was important to hold organisations and institutions accountable when it came to conditions in homeless shelters, adding that the mentality that “beggars should not be choosers” could be harmful.

“We hold the organisations that we partner with accountable because they need to do what they say they are doing on the website. So, when the mayor [of Cape Town] says [the city is] providing psychosocial support in Safe Spaces, the community needs to go to those Safe Spaces and hold them accountable when it comes to what should be done… You are giving to that Safe Space, it’s our tax money,” he said.

“Anybody that is struggling with trauma and addiction and mental health problems will react [badly] to a toxic environment that is more policing than it is rehabilitative, where they’re not getting good food, where they’re not sleeping in a good space, where they’re not able to take a shower or wear dignified clothes.”

Read more: ‘A travesty of human rights’ — Cape Town shelter occupants tell of degrading conditions

Where do unhoused persons get money for shelter or other needs?

The 2020 U-turn report provided a breakdown of the sources of funds for unhoused persons who participated in its survey. The main sources were:

• Parking cars (23%);


• Expanded Public Works Programme opportunities (17%);


• Friends and family (15%);


• A government grant (15%);


• Ad hoc employment (15%);


• Recycling (15%); and


• Begging or donations (14%).

A small minority reported that they made money through sex work, selling drugs or stealing. DM