For some of us, there is a safety net when faced with the crisis of lost employment. We can fall back on parents, spouses or friends. Others are not so lucky.

Last week, I bought a new bed. It is, hands down, one of the best purchases I've made as an adult. Even more so when you consider that up until then, I was still sleeping on the second-hand single bed I bought off one of my honours-year classmates. My first night in this new bed was one of the most comfortable I can remember.

Around the same time as I got the bed, I started working on an article about a recent Western Cape High Court ruling that approved the eviction of unhoused persons from seven sites around Cape Town's inner city by the end of July. Through interviews with people living in these spots - and the city-funded Safe Space One shelter under the Culemborg Bridge - I began to build a more complete picture of their lives. Our conversations have taken shape against a backdrop of escalating storms and frigid temperatures.

I've slept terribly ever since, and the new bed hasn't helped.

There are certain mantras of the middle class when it comes to living alongside those who've been left without a home. "Don't give them...