Paul Kirk
Last week Durban’s largest shelter for the homeless ran out of food. This week, a homeless man had to be turned away because there was no space for him.
This is because hundreds of Gauteng’s indigent winter at the coast where, thanks to the warm Indian ocean, daytime temperatures seldom drop below 20C.
But the annual migration of the homeless to Durban places an enormous strain on the city’s homeless shelters particularly the largest one, the Ark, where the number of residents can nearly double overnight.
This year the migration has been as dramatic as ever.
According to Pastor Peggy Beck, a senior staff member at the Ark, the number of residents during summer seldom exceeds 550. But last week more than 900 homeless people were in residence at the old railway hostel that houses the Ark.
Beck had to turn away the homeless man and it was not an experience she enjoyed: “The poor man had walked the whole way from Johannesburg to avoid the incredible cold of winter. His feet were swollen and blistered and he had not eaten for a long time.
“He came looking for shelter, but at this time of year we have none. We even have people sleeping on the passages outside the toilets. All we could do was offer him a bowl of warm food and clean his feet.”
The Ark is more than a shelter; it is also a practising employment agency. Beck and her colleagues do everything they can to find their charges employment. In exchange for their board at the Ark, residents are expected to donate 30% of their income to the shelter. This money is also used to subsidise those who are too ill or unable to work.
The Ark’s clinic treats more than 120 people a day, many of whom are HIV-positive or have Aids.
During winter, the Ark becomes a hive of industry. All the residents help to run the organisation.
Michael, who describes himself as a “gentleman of the road”, has had a sporadic relationship with the Ark for more than 11 years almost the full life of the organisation. Like many other residents, he hails from Johannesburg originally.
“I worked on the mines. All types of mines, copper, gold and finally asbestos. It was the asbestos that was the worst. I now have asbestosis of the lungs. I won’t be leaving Durban again,” he said.
Soft-spoken Tim Carter is another former gentleman of the road. He runs the clothing store at the Ark. During winter, he is hard-pressed to clothe everyone who comes into the shelter.
Said Carter: “Men’s clothes are especially difficult to come by. During the winter period a lot of people come down from Johannesburg to get away from the cold. But the problem is that after the trip from Johannesburg they often have lice and then their clothes have to be burned.”
Perhaps Carter’s most satisfied customer is Petrus Norman. Looking sartorially splendid in a multicoloured outfit, Norman is a former artisan from Johannesburg. Like many others he has escaped the cold to come to Durban.
Norman runs the Ark’s workshops, where mechanical and electrical repairs are undertaken.
But the person who worries the most during the annual exodus of the poor is probably Loretta Zietzling, who has to feed 900 people three meals every day. Said Zietzling: “Sometime I have no idea how we do it. Sometimes we simply pray and pray and eventually something will come for us to cook. Pretty much everything that we cook with is donated.”
Zietzling was once destitute and homeless. But now, she says, life is a lot better. She says she enjoys working with food and cooking for 900 is a pleasure.
And she knows all about the annual migration to Durban.
“Nobody makes much of a thing about it, but it is common sense. It is not easy to survive on Johannesburg streets this time of year. And our own ‘outies’ realise that, while it is lekker in summer, it is not nice to sleep on the beach in wintertime.”