Progress made on CBD voluntary relocations to dignified Safe Space transitional shelter

8 August 2024

As at Thursday 8 August, the City had assisted with voluntary relocations for around a third of the 150 respondents who initially accepted the City’s offer of dignified transitional shelter at Safe Spaces. Of the remainder, some have changed their minds and remain in unlawful occupation, while others have left the sites of their own volition. This follows the Western Cape High Court granting a final eviction order for various unlawful occupation sites in the Cape Town CBD. Read more below:

The order relates to various unlawful occupation hotspots along Buitengracht Street, FW De Klerk Boulevard, Foregate Square, taxi rank and Foreshore, Helen Suzman Boulevard, Strand Street, Foreshore/N1, Virginia Avenue and Mill Street Bridge in the city. A standing interdict is included in the order preventing further unlawful occupation of these areas.

The City’s offer of dignified transitional shelter and social services remains available at all times for those who have not yet accepted. Preparations will be made to evict any remaining unlawful occupants at the various sites after 12 August.

Due to the transience of people unlawfully occupying the sites, it is not possible at this stage to estimate how many people would need to be evicted. As is routine, when people vacate these sites they will be requested to take all personal belongings. Where personal items are not claimed, these will be documented and stored at the City’s Ndabeni facility where they can be collected by the owner.

The brand new 300-bed Ebenezer Safe Space has been offered to all respondents. Most of the voluntary relocations have been to this facility, with some moving to Culemborg Safe Space 2.

‘We feel glad for every instance where someone has made the right choice to leave the streets, because we know tonight they will sleep in a much more dignified, healthy, and safe environment, with warm beds, hot meals, and ablution facilities at our Safe Space transitional shelters.

They will have access to medical care, social workers, substance abuse treatment, family reunification services, EPWP work, and personal development programmes to help them leave the streets for good. The City has gone to great lengths to extend every offer of care to individuals unlawfully occupying public places in various parts of the CBD.

No person has the right to indefinitely refuse all offers of social support while reserving a public place as exclusively theirs. Our public places must be open and available to all,’ said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

City expanding Safe Space dignified transitional shelter

The City is spending over R220 million in the next three years to expand and operate its Safe Space transitional shelters beyond the current 1 070 beds across the CBD, Bellville, and Durbanville facilities.

The City currently operates two Safe Spaces at Culemborg in the east CBD which offer 510 shelter beds across the facilities, with a new 300-bed Safe Space in Green Point opened in July 2024. A further facility is on the cards for Muizenberg, with plans for more around the metro.

The City further runs the Matrix substance abuse treatment programme, with an 83% success rate for clients, addressing a key driver of why people end up on the streets.

Annually, the City helps around 3 500 individuals with shelter placement or referrals to an array of social services. In 22/23, this amounted to 2 246 shelter placements, 112 family reunifications and reintegrations, 1 124 referrals to social services, and over 880 short-term contractual job opportunities via the Expanded Public Works Programme.

The City’s Safe Space model includes:

- dignified shelter,

- comfort and ablutions,

- two meals per day,

- access to a social worker on-site,

- personal development planning,

- various social services including ID Book and social grant assistance,

- family reunification services

- access to substance and alcohol abuse treatment,

- skills training,

- help finding a job, and

- access to EPWP work placement

Statement issued by Lyndon Khan, Mayoral Media Officer, Cape Town, 8 August 2024