{"id":241330,"date":"2022-10-27T22:19:27","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/15000-homeless-people-and-only-three-city-of-johannesburg-shelters\/"},"modified":"2022-10-27T22:19:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:19:27","slug":"homeless-not-nearly-enough-shelters-in-johannesburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/homeless-not-nearly-enough-shelters-in-johannesburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless: Not nearly enough shelters in Johannesburg"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thabang Moagi lives on the bridge in Harrison Street, Braamfontein. He survives by guarding cars at night and offering to wash people\u2019s cars. Photos: Chris Gilili<\/p>\n

With South Africa\u2019s economy staggering, and two in every five adults unemployed, \u201cvillages\u201d of homeless people are springing up in South Africa\u2019s cities as increasing numbers of people find themselves on the street. In our series on homelessness, GroundUp looks at how they are managing to get by.<\/p>\n

Zamokuhle Sangweni, 31, from KwaZulu-Natal, is part of a group of people who have built shelters against the wall of the Methodist Church building on Rissik Street in Johannesburg city centre. She survives on handouts of food from strangers and would love to find a place in a shelter \u201cso that I can get my life together\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the City of Johannesburg, with at least 15,000 homeless people, according to communications officer Ayanda Radebe, runs only three shelters. (The City says it\u2019s not possible to scientifically estimate the number of homeless people, so the 15,000 figure is a rough number.) The biggest are in the city centre, with a combined capacity of 650. There is a fourth shelter funded by the Gauteng government. There are also other places for homeless people run by churches and non-government organisations, but there is undoubtedly an acute shortage of shelter beds.<\/p>\n

One of the City shelters is in Kotze Street in Hillbrow, very close to Constitution Hill. Homeless people GroundUp interviewed said the R8 nightly fee was hard to pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been on the streets for more than ten years now,\u201d said Sangweni. \u201cI have even developed sicknesses I don\u2019t know about. I have swollen legs and I am taking medication. It is too much, and I don\u2019t know where my next meal will come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Zamokuhle Sangweni survives on handouts of food from strangers.<\/p>\n

She used to rent a place in a shelter in Marshalltown with friends. They used to pay R700 a month. \u201cThere were three of us sharing a room. We took odd jobs here and there to pay our way. However life took a turn for the worse, we could not pay anymore, and we got kicked out of the shelter. We ended up sleeping on the streets, \u201d said Sangweni.<\/p>\n

Radebe says in 2011-22 over 11,500 homeless people were reached by the City\u2019s services.<\/p>\n

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City of Johannesburg describes a conflict that is happening in neighbourhoods across the country<\/h2>\n

In its response to our questions the City of Johannesburg described a conflict that is happening in cities across the country.<\/p>\n

Broadly speaking, there are two opposing opinions about homeless people that housed residents are articulating, \u201cthose who are for and those who are against homeless people\u201d, as the City put it:<\/p>\n