Earlier this month, it was reported that the City of Cape Town confiscated ten tents belonging to homeless people residing in Van Riebeeck Park.
But the tension between a few Vredehoek residents, homeless people living in the local park and the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement has been heightened for quite some time now and homeowners have had enough.
GroundUp explains that residents are frustrated with the City’s lack of action and have taken it upon themselves to raise money, and find accommodation for the homeless people in a suburb nearby.
Rainbow House is located in Observatory and is now home to a few residents who were part of this move, including Ziggy Goredema, a talented immigrant from Zimbabwe who designs and creates his own lampshades with recycling material to make an honest living, as per the Daily Maverick.
These individuals are now able to wake up to a hot plate of food and a room of their own after the Rehoming Collective organisation, the Special Ops security company, and a few residents of Vredehoek banded together to make this move possible.
According to the chair of the Friends of Van Riebeeck Park, Gary Anstey, three residents contributed R30 000 but with a steep R1 800 cost per resident per month, it’s uncertain how long the residents will have this home for.
Managing Director of the Rehoming Collective Carlos Filipe Mesquita, who was once homeless himself, said that he decided to move these people to one of the collective’s houses “out of desperation… because they were about to get thrown out”.
Chivalry is not dead after all.
Picture: Unsplash