{"id":233956,"date":"2022-08-12T08:36:33","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T06:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/when-a-car-is-your-only-home\/"},"modified":"2022-08-12T08:36:33","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T06:36:33","slug":"when-a-car-is-your-only-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/when-a-car-is-your-only-home\/","title":{"rendered":"When a car is your only home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dane Herrington calls his 1984 Ford Sierra \u201cThe Great White\u201d. Purchased in 1989, the car has clocked up hundreds of thousands of kilometres on South Africa\u2019s roads. For ten years, he has lived in his car. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n

When Dane Herrington goes to bed, he moves his belongings, books and clothing to the front of his beloved 1984 Ford Sierra. He sleeps on a large mattress at the back. He uses a shower at a petrol station. For ten years, he has lived in his car.<\/p>\n

Since 1989, when he bought the \u201cThe Great White\u201d Sierra, the qualified horticulturist, who is now 64, has clocked up hundreds of thousands of kilometres in pursuit of short-term work opportunities in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Waterval.<\/p>\n

Unable to secure long-term work, he found himself homeless, with only his car. It was \u201ca slow descent to where I am now\u201d, he says. He doesn\u2019t want to live in a car, he says.<\/p>\n

He has his old age grant, a little money from family abroad, and help from people in the community. He says the increase in fuel prices has hit him hard.<\/p>\n

For the past few years, he has been living in and around Table View.<\/p>\n

Herrington avoids shelters for the homeless. They are too \u201ccrammed\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the environment for someone who\u2019s living in his car. I\u2019ve got possessions in there, and they could get stolen \u2026 Whether it\u2019s parked on the premises or not, it makes no difference,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Herrington thinks the City of Cape Town should allow people who have only their cars to live in to park at abandoned caravan parks or covered parking lots with ablution facilities, for a small fee. \u201cIf you\u2019re running your car, you\u2019ve got to have some money,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But City bylaws make it illegal to live in your vehicle on public property, except in a \u201cdire emergency or in a designated rest area\u201d. Wayne Dyason, spokesperson for City law enforcement, said fines ranged from R300 to R500.<\/p>\n

To avoid issues with police or \u201cthe ratepayers\u201d, Herrington parks on the grounds of a church in the evening. He leaves around 4am, before people arrive.<\/p>\n

He spends most of his day in the library, \u201cmy office\u201d. He uses the facilities there to email. He is also working on a book \u2013 \u201cEnjoy the Ride\u201d.<\/p>\n

How many people are now living in their cars, nobody really knows. Herrington says that there are plenty of people living in cars but \u201cyou just don\u2019t see them \u2026 They park in certain places where the cops can\u2019t see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He put GroundUp in contact with Beryl, who is 71. She did not want her full name published.<\/p>\n

Beryl has lived for the past year with her 37-year-old son in a four-door sedan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s driving my son crazy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

They were each fined R300 for sleeping in the vehicle. \u201cI can\u2019t pay it,\u201d she says. She has a court date in September.<\/p>\n

Beryl has her old age grant and occasionally gets work, such as dog sitting. She spends about R450 a month on petrol for the car. \u201cIf you don\u2019t drive it every day, the battery goes flat,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

They have a gas stove for cooking and two small solar panels for charging devices. She swims in the sea and showers on the beach if it\u2019s not too cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t choose to be where I am,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dane Herrington calls his 1984 Ford Sierra \u201cThe Great White\u201d. Purchased in 1989, the car has clocked up hundreds of thousands of kilometres on South Africa\u2019s roads. For ten years, he has lived in his car. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks When Dane Herrington goes to bed, he moves his belongings, books and clothing to the front […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-233956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/when-a-car-is-your-only-home.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}