QPWEB Issues - A Vagrant's Fate

Early one morning in 2012, a lady walking her dogs noticed a male vagrant (whom she thought was sleeping) lying face down on the Queens Park Soccer Field. The night before had been cool but not cold or wet. Other walkers noticed the figure later on, but it was at around eight a.m. that somebody tried to rouse him and found him to be deceased. There were no signs of foul play.

The SAP were contacted and they duly arrived. An arriving group of school children from a neaby school had to be rapidly diverted by their teacher back from where they had come. Some time mid-morning, the corpse was removed by the mortuary van.

This sad but factual event illustrates what the ultimate fate of vagrants in Queens Park often is. Death by exposure to the elements.

Back to Vagrancy Issues here.

Back to Queens Park issues here.

QPWEB Issues - Vagrancy Solutions

What to do about the vagrants in Queens Park?

To ignore the problem doesn't help.

Some believe that everybody has a right to live wherever they choose. How would they feel if vagrants started living on their front stoep, or in their back garden?

Some people even provide food for the vagrants. While this is a noble guesture, it is also short-sighted. Ironically, doing so guarantees the continued suffering of those poor people in the great outdoors. Which tends to be a short and unpleasant life, considering Cape Town's weather, .

The solution must surely be to rehabilitate vagrants back into a sustainably productive life where they can take responsblity for their own wellbeing. The Displaced People's Unit provides a recovery path to achieve this. But only with the consent of the person seeking recovery. Some do take that option and it works for them. Others also do, but opt out when they discover that alcohol is discouraged at the recovery venue.

If a homeless person refuses the DPU's help or other Social Welfare options, they have chosen that lifestyle. Which choice nobody else can make for them, but there are consequences to living that way. Here is an example.

Technically, if anybody sleeps overnight in a Council-owned Public Open Space, they are breaking a municipal law and can be arrested. In practise, it usually takes a little longer to resolve the matter.

Various agencies can be approached to deal with issues of vagrancy. They are:

• The South African Police;
   
• The Metro Police;
  
  
• The CCC Land Invasions Unit;
   
• The Displaced Persons Unit;
  
  
• The appropriate Ward Councillor (who will usually refer your complaint to Land Invasions and/or the DPU).

For other Queens Park Issues, click here.

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.

QPWEB Issues for Queens Park

Any public park will have some issues. Fortunately, some are now less of a problem in Queens Park than before. To describe such issues is not to discourage people from using the park, but to rise awareness so that the community can respond and minimise the bad stuff.

Drugs

Prostitution

Vagrancy

Vandalism

Bad Behaviour

Truancy


Grafitti

Litter

For further Security issues, click here.