You can feel that the colder weather is here, so clearly winter is very nearly upon us.
While all of us are justifiably concerned about the ever-increasing money pressures, I couldn’t help but notice what looks like a gradual increase in homelessness in the city.
Previously I have written about how I’ve noticed the number of intersection beggars climbing over the past two years.
It has reached the point where you can no longer stop at a robot without being approached by someone desperate for any small change, or leftover food.
Lately I have also been paying attention to the growing informal communities of homeless people across the city.
And when I say growing, I mean the actual settlements get bigger by the week, but also, new ones are springing up on a regular basis.
Driving around recently, I made a point of paying close attention.
In a 10km radius, I counted more than a dozen different informal settlements of different sizes.
It starts with the community that has been fenced in next to the Three Anchor Bay tennis courts, followed by another in the centre island a little further along.
There’s one as you go onto the elevated freeways from town and another smaller one beside the broken bridge.
Another in the District Six area next to the NMB and another growing on the pavement outside St Peter’s Square in Observatory.
And then as you leave town on the N1, there’s a few makeshift homes on the Freeway island, just before the lower Woodstock exit.
Then there’s the old community above the Bo-Kaap, one below the Bo-Kaap along Buitengracht Street and a small one alongside Strand Street, outside the Castle and below Signal Hill further along.
These are both disturbing and very sad developments.
It is troubling, because these are the early signs of urban decay that our city bosses should be taking note of.
And sad, because these are clearly people with very few options open to them.
I am not anti-poor or anti-homeless by any stretch. To the contrary.
Along with the homeless themselves, I would like to see their dignity restored.
It is a paradoxical sign of our times that homelessness is even still a reality, considering that new multi-million rand, high-rise developments are being constructed around them, without any consideration for building a solution into the plans.
In this time of economic strife, leading to psychological trauma and mental health pressures, it is not something we can, or should ignore.
As we dig ourselves out of the Covid ruins, we shouldn’t leave any of our fellow Capetonians behind, for the continued beauty of our city, but mostly for the compassion and humanity of our beings.