2022 has contained the best of the best and the worst of the worst, but strangely with the benefit of reflection now available, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have experienced the best without the worst.
The worst for me about 2022:
1. Realising even heroes can have horns.
2. Feeling as powerless and voiceless as I had felt as a man living on the streets, albeit for a short time.
3. Watching the insecurities of previously homeless people being used as a tool with which to gain their support despite it being to their detriment.
4. Losing faith in a system that is failing us all.
5. Having to find my strength and confidence from sources outside my inner circle and way beyond our borders.
The best for me about 2022:
1. Finding my strength and confidence from sources outside of my inner circle and beyond our borders.
2. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.
3. The realisation that what I have to focus on are the people living on the streets and not “the homeless”.
4. Realising the answer to addressing those living on the streets rests with communities rather than with organisations.
5. Becoming independent. Being able to like and support or dislike and criticise anything and/or anyone that I feel deserves that praise and/or criticism and thus have the freedom and privilege of being able to see and suggest magic combinations in solutions others are too jaded to see.
Someone asked me the other day what saddened me most about the homeless situation in Cape Town and my response was, at the time: The manner in which homeless people are used and spat out as organisations focus on securing funds to uplift and empower the homeless.
And although this still rings true for me, something else needs to be said.
The more I deal with real situations with those living on the streets and especially those who’ve been given opportunities to be re-homed and empowered, the more I have realised those living on the streets also have a great deal to answer for.
And although some people who are living on the streets or some of those that previously lived on the streets use opportunities granted them to their benefit and take some initiative and use the limited resources they are provided with to the best of their ability to take that next step to reclaiming their lives, many, on realising how ineffective the entire system is, in terms of real change, have taken the decision to take advantage of all the system has to offer and destroy even those things within the system that have the potential of being beneficial to them and others.
This, to me, is problematic.
I am personally looking to change people living on the streets’ negative only perception of any assistance being offered to them by communities as much as I am looking to change the negative only view most communities have of people living on the streets.
I am obligated to currently leave the service providers out of the equation because, like the City and the Province, there is very little trust and belief in them.
History has those relationships at a disadvantage and it’s easier for the solutions to be coming from those living on the streets and the communities they identify with, than from those living on the streets and those they see as the cause of all their hardships, i.e. the City and Province and all their agents like service providers, law enforcement agencies etc. Hopes for 2023
1. That everyone who really wants to see a reduction in the numbers of those living on the streets will let go of personal and political agendas and focus on the goal we share.
2. That everyone realises the importance of qualifying and quantifying those living on the streets and thus support the Everybody Counts campaign.
3. That communities see the value of Homeless Hubs run by the community, both homed and homeless.
4. That the City, provincial government and service providers realise the value and expertise of those with lived experience of living on the streets and make their involvement in finding solutions a priority.
5. That the City will consult and interact with people living on the streets and with those with lived experience of living on the streets in their creation of transitional safe spaces and that they become a reality.
6. That the City announces the establishment of a Continuum of Care comprising political leaders, academics with expert knowledge, people with lived experience, service providers and community members to decide on budgets and allocations of funds designated to reducing the numbers of people on the streets.
Here is wishing you all a very prosperous, safe, friendly and neighbourly entry into 2023 and may we come to this moment next year in good health, good spirits and all be able to say: let’s just do more of what we did in 2023.
* Carlos Mesquita.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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