Homelessness in Cape Town

At CSUMB, I teach a service learning course called "Hunger and Homelessness," where are students work in a number of homeless shelters in the Monterey County area. Through that class, I got involved with the transformation of Soledad Street in Salinas (the "mecca" for homeless in Monterey County", which has led to our work in the "Chinatown Renewal Project." http://76.12.244.136/services/redevelopment/pdf/Chinatown_Plan.pdf According to the 2007 Monterey County homeless Census, around 50% of the 3,766 homeless in Monterey County can be found in Salinas, mostly in the Chinatown area. For our region, this is a significant issue.

OK, now, are you sitting down? Check out these stats for Cape Town. They came from an article in the Cape Times, writtenby Gerry Adlard who is doing his PhD at the African Centre for Cities at UCT. Check out these numbers:

* 150,000: the number of households living in "informal settlements" (this means shanty towns, without plumbing, etc.)
* 250,000: the number of households currently on the waiting list for housing (residing illegally in backyard shacks in "formal" settlements/townships
* 3.3: estimated number of people per household
* 1.2 million: estimated number of people living either in shacks in informal settlements, or backyard shacks.

So, out of 3 million people in Cape Town, the estimate is that 1.2 million are basically "homeless," living in these informal settlements or shanty towns, in shacks without a toilet or running water. That is 40% of the total population of the city! And of those families living in the "informal settlements," 91% are living below the poverty line ($320/month of family income).

So, how is Cape Town planning to get 400,000 people into homes, especially before the start of the World Cup soccer tournament in July 2010? Good question! Since democracy in 1994, Cape Town has been able to build about 8,000 new "low-income" homes per year. The process of getting access to new land, getting people to agree to move to temporary locations, and getting the homes built has just taken a lot longer (and cost a lot more) than they had thought.

As the months go by, change is slow to happen, and the 1.2 million people living in these shacks struggle to survive through floods in the rainy season, and all-too-frequent fires --people use candles and lanterns for light and cook use wood to cook and keep warm, so there are frequent fires that destroy lives and livelihoods. This is a picture of the aftermath of a recent fire in the informal settlement that I pass each morning on my way to work, called "Joe Slovo" (named: after a famous South African struggle leader).

The scope of the homeless issue here in Cape Town is enormous, and yet, the South African constitution has made housing a fundamental human right! That means that everyone has a right to a home. What a juxtaposition: an incredibly progressive constitution, and an unbelievably harsh reality. Adlard estimates that it will take at least $10 billion to address the housing issue in Cape Town alone! Well, the U.S. investing $700 billion to the banks who got greedy in trying to make money off the housing market. Maybe a $10 billion investing in housing is the way to go!

Blog ya later.

Seth./.