Excellent article by Lorenzo Davids (“House the homeless where you find them”, Cape Argus, April 17) – he has researched the problem internationally, and has very logical and practical reasons for his recommendations. Hopefully it will inspire some positive responses.
But the housing context is so much wider than just the homeless – there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been on the housing waiting lists for decades; do the homeless take precedence over them?
And is the place “where you find them” suitable for developing houses? (We have “seasonal” homeless in a detention pond nearby, who have to move every winter because of flooding.)
To paraphrase the great Desmond Tutu: Pulling people out of the river is the right thing to do, but we should go upstream to find out why they’re falling in – I suspect we’ll find that overcrowding was a great contributor, and that the “housing shortage” is actually a “people surplus”.
So we should definitely follow up on Lorenzo’s recommendations, but the authorities need to go further, and vigorously campaign for family planning.
But they probably won’t, as it may reduce voter confidence, and votes now are more important than future problems.
* Rob Johnston, Tokai.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Do you have something on your mind; or want to comment on the big stories of the day? We would love to hear from you. Please send your letters to [email protected].
All letters to be considered for publication, must contain full names, addresses and contact details (not for publication)