Homeless Michelle wants off the street, pleads for warmth
If Michelle Nthetele was being honest and truthful with the Advertiser, a place of safety is all she needs to move away from the streets.
The Advertiser caught up with the homeless Michelle at her little makeshift cardboard home, behind a block of flats in the park in Ravens Road, on July 18.
This publication was there to witness the removal of vagrants living in that area by the EMPD.
Residents are fed up with their presence, saying they cause all sorts of problems.
It is understood that those living on the streets have previously been removed a couple of times but keep coming back.
Following a long wait and a no-show by the EMPD, the Advertiser started quizzing the vagrant, who identified herself as Michelle.
As this journalist approached her roofless, makeshift home, she appeared to be relieving herself inside a bucket – I paused to confirm this, which she did, before asking me to wait for a couple of minutes while she finished.
As soon as she was done, she called me and we continued with the conversation.
Michelle said she had been living on the streets for about five years now – and at the same spot for two years.
The 23-year-old claims to originally come from Kimberly.
But why did she leave home in the first place?
“I left home because of abuse – I’m from one of those alcoholic families, so I came to Boksburg looking for a job,” said Michelle, adding that she left school after completing Grade 11.
Asked with whom she lives and if she is not afraid of the dark nights, being a woman there alone, Michelle said she used to live with “some guy”.
“But that guy was not right for me, so I left him – I’m not really scared here, because of the surrounding flats; if something happened I’d scream and someone would help me,”she said.
Would she consider moving from the streets if she is offered a place to stay?
“Yes, I will, it’s not nice on the streets,” she said.
The cold nights are hitting her hard, adding to her daily troubles of having to look for food.
“Someone stole my blankets here last night – please help me, I need blankets and some clothes to keep warm,” she pleaded.
