Pensioner loses unlawful-eviction case after 16 days on Cape Town streets - IOL

The Applicant, Sheree Foggitt, a 69-year-old unemployed pensioner, was evicted from The Haven Night Shelter on January 23, 2025, and has decided to take the shelter to court for unlawful evictions.

A 70-year-old pensioner who ended up sleeping on Cape Town’s streets after leaving a Western Cape shelter has lost her court battle to have her removal declared an unlawful eviction.

Sheree Foggitt spent two weeks without accommodation after the Haven Night Shelter ended her stay at its Malmesbury facility in January last year.

She turned to the Western Cape High Court, arguing that the Haven had evicted her without following the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE).

But the full bench dismissed her application, ruling that the shelter was not her “home” under PIE and that ending the services provided to her did not amount to an eviction under the Act. The judgment, delivered this week, details how Foggitt went from having a place at the Malmesbury shelter to sleeping on the streets of Cape Town.

Foggitt had used various Haven shelters since 2020 and was admitted to the Malmesbury facility in April 2024.

The Haven’s policy allowed clients six months, with a review after three months and a maximum stay of nine months. By January 2025, the Haven wanted Foggitt to leave.

According to its version before the court, she had refused to pay shelter fees despite receiving a Sassa grant, would not do chores, had not complied with its rules and had not participated in social work services. Her exit date was eventually set for January 22. The Haven ended its services to her the following day and transported her to Cape Town.

Foggitt was taken to a Safe Space at the Golden Acre, but was not admitted. She was then taken to the City of Cape Town’s social development office, where she was also not assisted.

She was taken back to the Napier shelter before eventually being left with her belongings at the provincial Department of Social Development’s offices in Queen Victoria Street.

The judges were critical of what happened.

The judgment described the failure by City functionaries to assist her as unexplained and the situation as “most unsatisfactory”, particularly considering her age and vulnerability. Foggitt had nowhere to stay from January 23 until February 7.

Six days after she became homeless, she was attacked and robbed of her phone.

“It is heartrending to imagine the vulnerable state she found herself in, homeless at this advanced age,” Judge M Holderness said in the judgment. But the Haven’s case was that Foggitt had been given other options before her stay ended.

These included moving to its Bellville shelter to attend substance abuse programmes, spending two nights at its Napier shelter, receiving a bus ticket to join her son in Upington or being placed at a Safe Space.

The court accepted the Haven’s version that Foggitt had declined those options.

The Western Cape MEC for Social Development and the national Mister of Social Development also opposed Foggitt's application. According to the judgment, the department had offered to assist her to apply for placement at an old-age home and appointed a social worker to interview her and inform her of her rights. 

That became important when the judges considered whether she had been legally evicted.

The court found that a stay at the Haven was temporary and aimed at helping people move back into society rather than providing permanent accommodation.

“The contention advanced on her behalf rests principally upon the duration of her occupation; however duration alone does not convert accommodation of this nature into a home,” the judgment reads. The court ruled that PIE therefore did not apply to the termination of the Haven’s services to Foggitt.

Her application was dismissed, but the judges did not order her to pay costs, citing her age, vulnerable circumstances and the constitutional issues she had brought before the court.