Derelict buildings are often associated with criminal activities which portray occupiers as criminals, drug addicts and social delinquents. This creates a stereotype of viewing homeless people as problematic based on their social standing. Most living in these buildings have changed them into makeshift bedrooms for survival, while job hunting or seeking better opportunities.
Disused buildings are never conceptualized as a form of shelter for those who are falling between the cracks of society and have nowhere to go. Since we in a country with well-intentioned social policies and a Constitution that gives right to access to shelter, homeless people are denied the dignity of this core and fundamental right.
Homeless people should be seen taking over abandoned buildings as an act of “self-help”. The majority find living in derelict buildings better than being on the streets of the city. {A role that relevant local authorities should play, is to engage meaningfully with the occupants of such buildings, finding solutions to their status- quo, rather than being treated as vagrants}. This will eliminate the lack of understanding and complexities around the phenomenon of homelessness in our city.
Homelessness is not a criminal matter, it is a social matter.