'This is not my forever' – five accounts of homelessness and the hope of rebuilding a life

"This is not my forever." Five individuals share their journeys of survival and their hopes for the future as part of a new digital storytelling campaign by the CCID.

The Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) has launched a digital storytelling campaign in which people who have experienced homelessness describe the losses, daily struggles and hopes behind their circumstances.

“This Is Not My Forever” brings together accounts of family deaths, childhood abuse, addiction, separation from children, and the difficulty of finding somewhere safe to sleep.

Through first-person video interviews, the campaign challenges the idea that homelessness defines a person permanently.

After finding her turning point, Deidre now uses her journey to help others facing similar struggles see the light.

Born in the Northern Cape in 1973, Deidre’s life unravelled in 2014 when her relationship ended. Forced out of her accommodation with neither a home nor a job, she found herself adrift in Cape Town.

Consumed by guilt over being absent from her children’s lives and ashamed to return with nothing, she developed a drinking problem to avoid facing them.

Her lowest point came while living on the mountain among rats. She recalls becoming consumed by the search for another fix or drink, with little concern for anything else. Living with HIV, she also did not have her medication.

The moment that prompted her to reconsider her life came in a bathroom on Woodstock Main Road. She looked at herself in the mirror.

Deidre has kept photographs of herself from that period. Looking at them now, she describes pride in the changes she has made and a sense of belonging that she had lost. She is no longer ashamed to tell her story, instead using it to encourage people facing circumstances she recognises from her own life.

“I’m glad where I am today to help other people to see the light,” she says.

Having experienced homelessness herself, she now has an opportunity to help others find their way out.

Jerome is working towards a future where he can provide the safety, affection, and everyday routines for his children that his own childhood lacked.

Jerome Jones traces his experience of street life back to a harrowing childhood in Elsies River. Fleeing an abusive father, he found himself living on the streets by the age of nine.