QPWEB Issues - Vagrants

The plight of the homeless in Cape Town is the result of many factors, not least of which are the influx of people from beyond the Western Cape and the difficult economic climate where jobs are scarce.

While the humanitarian issues are very real for homeless people in Cape Town, vagants people sleeping in and around Queens Park are a problem because:

• Vagrants, like all other human beings, produce urine and faeces on a regular basis. If there isn't a public toilet available, this creates a potential health hazard. This is particularly relevant to a sports facility such as the QP Soccer Field;
   
• Sad to say, but there is a directly proportional relationship between the presence of homeless people and the litter factor;
   
• Homeless people know that there is safety in numbers. Often, what starts off as a perfectly harmless couple sleeping under what shelter they can find turns into something far more serious. More people join that group. And more. If nothing is done to address this issue, it deteriorates. Unfortunately the criminal gangs know this too and will exploit any loophole they can for their purposes.

A graphic example of this was the homeless group who moved in under the pedestrian bridge at the top of Queens Park Avenue some years ago. Over a period of a few months, it grew from two people into a group of over twenty, with shacks being built and piles of litter blowing around. Then the criminals moved in to exploit the situation. Almost every house along Queens Park Avenue was burgled. Drugs (including Tik) were being sold. Other undesireables moved in. The climax of this was where the SAP Bomb Disposal squad were called in to defuse a detonator that had been thrown as part of a gang turf dispute. Eventually, at great cost to the City Council, the group was relocated following an expensive court case. All because the problem was allowed to develop in the first place.

The local residents and park users also have the right to a clean, healthy, safe, litter-free recreation area.

For these reasons, vagrancy is discouraged in Queens Park. Oh, it's also illegal in the CCC regulations, for very good reasons.

Fortunately there are solutions, which are discussed here.

For other Queens Park issues, click here.