COVID-19 Worsen The
Challenges of The Homeless
Seventy-five-year-old, Isatu Koroma, had been married for 35-years when her husband died. Her two children died shortly after their father. During a dispute over her family land in her village outside Makeni, she came to Freetown to find a long-lost sister. She couldn’t find any relatives in Freetown and now spends her days wandering the streets of downtown Freetown, carrying a small bowl to collect alms from passers-by.
At night, Koroma sleeps under an overhang in front of a shop just off Kissy Road, in the east of Freetown. Koroma said she doesn’t read the papers, doesn’t listen to radio and certainly doesn’t watch television.
“I find out about news through people on the street who tell me things,” she said. “I have no idea about COVID-19, or whatever virus is going around these days.”
Koroma is out of touch with the current global coronavirus pandemic and doesn’t really care. She said, “I don’t know what all the fuss is about… probably just for the government to steal money or to frighten people. I’m not concerned.”
Hassanatu Conteh calls herself the “chairlady for homeless people” and usually spends her time along Kissy Road in the Princess Margaret Hospital area. Conteh said there are around 200 persons in her circle of homeless people. “Most of us are older women but there are children and street boys in our group as well.”
“Our lives are about finding money, food, clothes and we mostly don’t care about or know anything about any virus or so-called health emergency from the government,” Conteh said. “We don’t care about the government because they don’t care about us,” she added.
Those who sleep on the street, shelter in outdoor spaces and don’t have a permanent place to stay are generally invisible, unseen and often ignored by the State. Homelessness is formally defined by the United States government as when a person “lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, and if they sleep in a shelter designated for temporary living accommodations or in places not designated for human habitation.”
A worker in the Freetown City Council, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals, said, “We estimate there are more than 10,000 people living within the city who don’t have proper housing and would be considered ‘homeless’. Many of them are older, have mental issues or have been abandoned by their families.”
The numbers of “people experiencing homelessness” are merely guesses and no real research has been conducted into the numbers or challenges faced by the homeless in Freetown. A recent report by the Homeless Research Institute of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, in the US, found significant self-reports of health challenges:
According to Hassanatu Conteh many of the people she knows who are homeless have many problems. “If we get sick, we buy medicine from a street seller,” she said. Opening a small plastic bag, she displayed an array of pill packages and assorted ointments. She said they don't have free healthcare, can’t afford to go to a doctor and “suffer in silence” if they don’t feel well, which is usually often.
The elderly, Isatu Koroma, said many homeless people can’t abide by all these regulations she hears about. “We’re supposed to wear masks, wash our hands and stay apart,” she said. “Why? How? Where do we get masks? Where can we wash? Where do we use the toilet?” she asked.
Harold Thomas, the Communications Pillar Lead for the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre (NaCOVERC), said, “The regulations were for everyone and the messages should apply to everyone.” But, the homeless in Freetown don’t have access to the media, don’t have access to facemasks, hand sanitizers, wash facilities and can’t physically distance themselves from others because of their living conditions.
Hassanatu Conteh notes, “We are a poor group of poor women. We depend on others for food and kindness but conditions in the country are not good and people don’t give us as much as before.” She added, “Because things are so difficult, we are usually victims of robbery and violence.
Growing rates of violence on the streets was noted by the Head of Media of the Sierra Leone Police, Brima Kamara, he said, “We know homeless people are sometimes engaged in violence and the women are at a huge risk because they don’t have homes or families to protect them.”
Conteh said, “During the lockdowns and at night, women in some area were afraid. Many of them were abused, raped and robbed by men at night.” She said during the lockdown and under the travel restrictions some of the homeless women were sexually assaulted by men and security guards who were around at night.
NaCOVERC regulations may have been designed for “everyone” but there are no specific accommodations for those who are homeless. During the pandemic, NaCOVERC insists that people eat well, maintain a healthy immune system, get sufficient sleep and rest, maintain social and physical distance from others, wash hands regularly and wear face masks, all of which are almost impossible for those living on the streets of Freetown.
This story was put together with support from journalists for human rights (JHR) and the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) human rights fellowship.
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