Carlos Mesquita is a homeless activist and also works as a researcher for the Good party in the Western Cape Legislature.
How can we get the City to re-home a growing number of homeless persons in our street, please?
‘As we say goodbye to 2024 and prepare to say hello to 2025, just a reminder that our experience of a particular year is more about what we decide to take into and ...
Carlos Mesquita writes that on Sunday, they went back to the streets with our annual ‘Homeless for Christmas 2024’ where the main purpose being to update the data ...
‘As a former homeless man and now activist and friend of those living on the streets, I am for the fourth year in a row going Homeless for Christmas. It’s that time ...
‘Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, and it’s more common than most of us realize. It’s a hidden crime, meaning victims usually aren’t able or willing to come ...
‘. . . The City, the province and their aligned NGOs would rather waste the money that the public either generously donates to these organisations or pays to the ...
‘Whilst it’s true impact is that this by law amendment gives the City the right to evict without having to go to court to get an eviction order. This means taking ...
‘Even without looking at the statistics, it’s easy to imagine the connection between people who are unhoused and those who struggle with substance use disorders. ...
The City of Cape Town has been aggressively clearing homeless encampments across the city since a High Court judgment granted the City a conditional order to evict ...
The City of Cape Town and Mayor Geordin Hill Lewis need to explain to the ratepayers of Cape Town why it is that they are not honouring the promises they have made ...
COLUMN: Carlos Mesquita writes that the extent of homelessness in South Africa is extremely difficult to ascertain, and that this in turn points to our greatest ...
Carlos Mesquita writes that he has taken a moment to reflect on the past four years since leaving the streets as he marks his fourth anniversary as the Cape Argus’ ...
COLUMN: ‘This coming Thursday is World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day. It is highly significant that these two days fall on the same date, as it is crucial ...
‘The number of elderly individuals experiencing homelessness is rising. The number of elderly individuals experiencing sheltered homelessness nearly doubled from ...
OPINION: ‘The unfathomable psychological stress of not having a place to live can be unbearable, causing some homeless mental health patients to do drugs – but probably ...
COLUMN: ‘We often complain about those living on the streets behaving in anti-social ways, but the mere fact that most people ignore people experiencing homelessness ...
We have internalised the often false preconceived ideas and myths that are often featured in the media or in political narratives.
Part 2 of a two-part column on Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’ opening of a Safe Space for the homeless in Green Point recently.
This is the first part of a two-part column responding to the opening of a new Safe Space by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis in Green Point.
I am extremely angry this week. I am angry because I have spent the past two weeks trying to accommodate people living on the streets in dignified and sustainable ...
With a small group of donors, I have been accommodating those that the City has this past week, – during the most challenging weather conditions imaginable – been ...
Last week, I started sharing with readers a more or less typical Thursday in my life as a homeless man when I had been homeless for about four years.
‘I am going to take you on a day trip with me during my fourth year of homelessness. I need to emphasise that not every day would be the same and my experience is ...
COLUMN: On June 18, 2024, High Court Acting Judge MJ Bishop, granted the the City of Cape Town the right to evict between 99 and 140 people living at seven sites ...
COLUMN: As we welcome in our new administration, we must also remember that the previous administration had commissioned a green paper on developing a national policy ...