The City of Cape Town’s Street People Programme will conduct another round of research into the underlying reasons behind homelessness in the next 12 months.
The survey will interrogate pathways to homelessness, the homeless culture and trends, and the characteristics of people who find themselves on the streets, while also seeking to determine who has been on the street over the long-term, who is new, and why. The survey will help inform the City’s approach and whether there is a need to realign its existing interventions or add new ones.
‘Homelessness continues to be one of the most complex and emotive issues that the City deals with. There are no easy answers and so we continually have to reassess the landscape as well as our approach and whether we can do things better,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security; and Social Services, Alderman JP Smith.
Below is a snapshot of some of the Street People Unit’s interventions in the last financial year:
- 2 540 street people supported
- 390 people placed in shelters
- 78 people reunited with their families/communities of origin
- 4 110 temporary work opportunities created through the Expanded Public Works Programme
- 625 people assisted through the Winter Readiness Programme
- 14 632 complaints responded to
- 137 joint operations with Law Enforcement
- 25 Give Responsibly campaign activations
In one of the most recent reunifications, the Reintegration Unit came across a 32-year-old woman on the streets of Wynberg on 12 May 2017. They learnt that the woman had come to Cape Town for an employment opportunity, but it turned sour. Staff secured emergency shelter for the client while they tracked down her contacts in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. Once staff had established that the client would have a place to stay upon her return to Uitenhage, one of the City’s non-governmental organisation partners arranged for a bus ticket and she was safely seen off for her journey home – seven days after her first engagement with the unit. Staff have remained in contact with the client to ensure that she arrived home safely and to enquire after her general well-being.
‘These stories often go untold because it’s easier to look at the glass half-empty. Sadly, this client’s experience is not unique. Many of the people we find on the streets are jobseekers from other parts of the city or the country or people who can’t find a job or access a social grant because they do not have an identity document. Others have lost their jobs or homes and then there are also parolees who have nowhere to go. These are but a few examples of the reasons people end up on the street.
‘It’s an indication that society is letting them down because there are not enough safeguards early on in their journey to prevent them from falling through the net onto the streets. So the message clearly is that prevention is much more important and effective than reactive work and that’s why we will continue to put the emphasis on social development programmes rather than trying to address homelessness through law enforcement,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security; and Social Services, Alderman JP Smith.
For the current financial year, the City has set aside just under R7 million to continue providing assistance to as many street people as possible, with a view to helping them off the street permanently. This is in line with the Organisational Development and Transformation Plan which seeks to take services directly to residents. In addition:
- The Social Development Department is exploring the possibility of establishing a safe space and how the creation of such a space could aid its overarching goal of reducing the number of people living on the streets.
- The City has established 30 Local Networks of Care in communities to help prevent people at risk from migrating to the streets
- Budget has been set aside to create more than 1 000 temporary work opportunities for street people
- The City will continue its education and awareness drive for the public to give responsibly by donating to shelters or non-governmental organisations instead of direct donations that simply help keep people on the streets