The streets are better, say homeless people locked-down in Nelson Mandela Bay

“We’re better off on the streets!”

That was the word from the ever-dwindling number of homeless people being sheltered in halls across the Nelson Mandela Bay metro during the lockdown. 

At the weekend, the homeless shelters were markedly less full than they were a few weeks ago.

Uncertain about their futures as the lockdown regulations relax across the country, most of the homeless people housed in shelters said they had never been so hungry.

When the country went into lockdown, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality identified the Walmer Town Hall, Daku Hall in Kwazakhele, the NU2 Hall in Motherwell, the Babs Madlakane Hall in KwaNobuhle and the Jarman Hall in Korsten as venues where the homeless would be put up.

While most of the shelters initially accommodated more than 80 homeless people, only a fraction remain.

“Our situation is a joke, you can even call us the forgotten shelter,” a 39-year-old man at the Walmer Town Hall, who asked not to be named, said.

“Recently we were told that we are hanging on by a thin thread because the regulations are starting to relax. We can’t even ask the social worker assigned to us because she hardly ever comes here.

“We are hungry and the desperation from our peers here has got to a point where they steal someone’s belongings to sell in the streets — just so they can buy bread,” the man said.

Another Walmer Town Hall resident said most of the vagrants had gone back to the streets because they made money for food there.

“We haven’t had breakfast and it’s already 11am. The last time we had a meal was yesterday when they delivered our supper at 1.30pm.

“And the sad part is that there is a room here with food but we can’t get it because it’s locked,” the 34-year-old man said.

A lack of food appears to be a common issue at shelters, some of which have been vandalised.

Some said the halls had not been cleaned since May.

At NU2 a man said things had started out well but had taken a nose-dive swiftly.

“Things started OK here. We were made to feel very comfortable, however, as time went on, things became as they are now,” the 36-year-old man said.

They were now surviving on just one meal a day — breakfast.

Also at the NU2 Hall on Sunday morning, a 36-year-old man was moving chairs and mattresses, trying to clean the hall  – with few resources – for a church service.

“A lot of people have left here because of how bad it is. Some of us don’t have families, all we know is the streets, so we do not have anywhere else to go,” he said.

“This hall has not been cleaned for weeks now, and as far as what will happen going forward, we are clueless.”

Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mnki said the homeless people housed at the shelters were the responsibility of the department of social development.

“Truth be told, this is something that needs to be addressed as regulations relax as there is a likelihood that the halls might be used [for other purposes] at a later stage.

“However, as the department of social development has a social welfare responsibility it would better that it provides details around the matter,” Mniki said.

Social development spokesperson Gcobani Maswana said any concerns that the department would stop providing facilities for the homeless were unfounded.

Maswana said the department was using a “family-based approach”.

“A part of our socio-psychological support is to look at people’s backgrounds to see whether we can track down their families and further reunite those who are willing with their loved ones. Subsequently, we have successfully reunited some of them with their families,” he said.

He said the department was also offering counselling for those who had been estranged from their families, so that they could comfortably adjust to the different home environment.

Maswana did not respond to questions about allegations the homeless were going hungry.