{"id":241056,"date":"2022-10-25T17:48:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T15:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/when-it-gets-dark-this-place-is-full-of-rats-as-big-as-your-shoes-says-homeless-man-from-district-six\/"},"modified":"2022-10-25T17:48:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T15:48:18","slug":"this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis place is full of rats\u201d says homeless man from District Six"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/homeless_district6\/homelessdistrict6-20221018-ew3a0595hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"warn_big\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">A group of about 100 homeless people living people on Sydney Street in District Six say they are regularly raided by law enforcement officers. The group recently won a case against the City of Cape Town which has been ordered to pay them R1,700 each in compensation for belongings damaged and lost during an eviction in September 2021.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People living in an occupation on Sydney Street in District Six say they are regularly raided by law enforcement officers.<\/li>\n<li>The City of Cape Town says that allegations made by the group have not been proven in court papers, and that the group has refused alternative accommodation.<\/li>\n<li>A court recently interdicted the City from removing the group or destroying their belongings.<\/li>\n<li>The relationship between the City and Ndifuna Ukwazi, the organisation that represented the group in court, is tense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cNobody wants to live this life. I can\u2019t be expected to live this life and wake up happy,\u201d says Iddi Faraji Challah. He is one of about 100 people living in tents and makeshift homes in a parking lot in District Six, Cape Town.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>He says their living conditions are difficult because they are badgered by law enforcement officers several times a week. According to the occupants, the officers manhandle them during raids, search their shelters, throw their belongings outside, and often break their shelters. Challah says officers have also accused the occupants of stealing and questioned them about where they get money to buy food.<\/p>\n<p>He says that once officers demanded that they extinguish a fire and kicked over the food they were cooking. \u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019re coming to attack [us],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>In October 2021, the Western Cape High Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/documents\/davidsvcoct-compressed.pdf\">interdicted<\/a> the City of Cape Town from \u201cdemolishing, damaging, confiscating or otherwise destroying\u201d the homeless group\u2019s shelters and belongings.<\/p>\n<p>The court also found that the City had wrongfully evicted the group in September 2021 and ordered that they be compensated. GroundUp recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/district-6-occupiers-paid-compensation-from-city-cape-town\/\">reported<\/a> that some of the residents have received their R1,700 compensation. Housing rights organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi represented the group in the court case.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/homeless_district6\/homelessdistrict6-20221018-ew3a0566hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">One of the homeless people living on Sydney Street cooking pap as their meal for the day.<\/p>\n<p>When we visited the occupation on Sydney Street, some residents were cooking pap over a fire in a metal bin. Tents and shelters were scattered across the large parking lot. Many of the shelters are made of plastic sheets, wooden planks, cardboard, blankets and black bags. Some shelters are tied to the surrounding trees to hold it up.<\/p>\n<p>According to Challah, some of the occupants had lost their jobs and weren\u2019t able to pay rent, while others left home due to family problems. He says that when officers can\u2019t find a zip or opening to a shelter, they will cut it open with a knife. \u201cWhen they\u2019re finished, that hokkie is upside down,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Poppie Meyer, who has lived at the occupation with her husband for a few years, recounted an incident where officers ripped open their tent while they were asleep inside. She says they have lost their IDs and other important documents during these raids. \u201cYou must try to grab and pick up stuff as they throw it outside \u2026 It\u2019s not good living like this,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Meyer says that she has lived on the street for nearly nine years. \u201cWe didn\u2019t think we\u2019d be outside forever,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Danielle Louw, attorney at Ndifuna Ukwazi, said that law enforcement officials are usually searching for illegal substances and use this to justify their raids.<\/p>\n<p>Louw said that since the court case, the occupants are being \u201ctargeted for the very fact of standing up for themselves and their rights\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/homeless_district6\/homelessdistrict6-20221018-ew3a0521hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six-2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Many of the shelters are made of plastic sheets, wooden planks, cardboard, blankets and black bags.<\/p>\n<p>She said that the majority of the people living in the occupation \u201chave a unique set of circumstances which usually includes illegal substance use or mental and physical ailments\u201d. She said \u201cit\u2019s not just about offering a house\u201d but also the appropriate kind of support, such as access to a social worker, counselling, rehabilitation, or occupational therapy.<\/p>\n<p>District Six Civic Association chairperson Asa Salie, who lives close to the occupation, said that she has empathy for the homeless group. Salie said that they have had a massive increase in rats and flies in the area. She said that she sometimes can\u2019t stand on her stoep because of the rats running past.<\/p>\n<p>Salie said that the City should urgently provide the group bins for their rubbish, mobile toilets, and proper refuse removal. \u201cIt\u2019s not my job to tell people they don\u2019t belong, because people need a place to live,\u201d said Salie.<\/p>\n<p>She said while residents of District Six did not want the group to remain in the area indefinitely, they believe the area should at least be \u201cclean\u201d and \u201cas dignified as possible\u201d for the people living at the occupation.<\/p>\n<p>In response to several questions, the City of Cape Town said that it conducts \u201cgeneral crime prevention, by-law enforcement and area cleaning in the District Six area\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the course of the District Six litigation, for which the City was granted leave to appeal, various allegations were made that were not provable on the papers and may serve narrow interests in perpetuating the unlawful occupation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe City notes a general pattern of Ndifuna Ukwazi\u2019s clients, in this litigation and others, indefinitely refusing all offers of shelter and social assistance while reserving public spaces from being available for wider use,\u201d the City said.<\/p>\n<p>The City has withdrawn its appeal against the court ruling.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/homeless_district6\/homelessdistrict6-20221018-ew3a0554hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six-3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">District Six Civic Association chairperson Asa Salie says surrounding residents empathise with the homeless group but says the area should be kept clean.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of about 100 homeless people living people on Sydney Street in District Six say they are regularly raided by law enforcement officers. The group recently won a case against the City of Cape Town which has been ordered to pay them R1,700 each in compensation for belongings damaged and lost during an eviction [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241057,"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-241056","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\/10\/this-place-is-full-of-rats-says-homeless-man-from-district-six.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241056","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=241056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}