{"id":251683,"date":"2023-03-03T00:33:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T22:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/city-expands-safe-spaces-as-it-pursues-evictions-from-public-spaces\/"},"modified":"2023-03-03T00:33:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T22:33:40","slug":"cape-town-is-removing-homeless-people-from-the-street-this-is-what-the-city-is-offering-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cape-town-is-removing-homeless-people-from-the-street-this-is-what-the-city-is-offering-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town is removing homeless people from the street. This is what the City is offering instead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/matthew_hirsch\/image_safe_space_5jpg.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"warn_big\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-town-is-removing-homeless-people-from-the-street-this-is-what-the-city-is-offering-instead.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Andrew Pierce has been living in the Culemborg Safe Space for six months. He said he ended up on the streets after losing both parents when he was 16. Photos: Matthew Hirsch<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The City of Cape Town says it is increasing its spending on its Safe Spaces programme to R230-million over the next three years.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-town-is-removing-homeless-people-from-the-street-this-is-what-the-city-is-offering-instead.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/li>\n<li>The City is currently pursuing various evictions from public spaces.<\/li>\n<li>In a policy shift, officials say Safe Spaces will in future accommodate couples.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The City of Cape Town plans to spend R77-million this year and R230-million over the next three years (a 62% increase) on its Safe Spaces programme to help homeless residents, according to Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement follows the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/cape-town-to-serve-eviction-notices-on-people-living-on-public-spaces\/\">City\u2019s successful application<\/a> to the Western Cape High Court to serve eviction notices at various occupations on public land. According to a City statement, the court may grant a final eviction in April.<\/p>\n<p>Hill-Lewis, who visited the Culemborg Safe Space on Wednesday, said that over the past 14 months, social development workers have paid numerous visits to homeless residents and offered them assistance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it has consistently been turned down we go back and offer again \u2026 but eventually, we have to go to court to protect those public spaces. We can\u2019t allow that kind of urban decay to set in over time, for people to stay there permanently. It\u2019s not good for them, not good for those communities, and not good for the city as a whole,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n<p>The Homeless Action Coalition said in their experience people do not want to live on the streets, and if offers of assistance are being turned down, \u201cwe really need to look at why this is so and change our approach to effectively resolve this problem\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement the coalition said there was a need for \u201cwork readiness programmes linked to trauma, substance use disorder or psycho-socio programmes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>City officials have also said that there would be family dormitories where couples could stay together. This is a shift in policy. Various people living on the streets have told GroundUp that the inability to accommodate families and couples is a major obstacle to going to shelters and safe spaces.<\/p>\n<p>The City says that since July 2022, it has helped 1,453 people off the streets, made 409 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) work placements for those staying at Safe Spaces and shelters, and made 382 referrals for social grants, IDs, specialised care and mental health facilities, and substance abuse treatment.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/matthew_hirsch\/image_safespace_4.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-town-is-removing-homeless-people-from-the-street-this-is-what-the-city-is-offering-instead-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Priscilla Ubah has been living at the Safe Space since October last year, after living on the streets for 4 months.<\/p>\n<p>Priscilla Ubah arrived at the Culemborg Safe Space in October last year. \u201cI was on the streets for four months. It was terrible on the streets, you don\u2019t know where you are going to sleep or what your next meal will be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen during the night. It\u2019s very dangerous on the street. I\u2019d rather go for a safe space or a shelter \u2026 I\u2019m working for EPWP and I managed to save up all my money,\u201d said Ubah.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Pierce, who has been living in the Culemborg Safe Space for six months, said he ended up on the streets after losing both parents when he was 16. He said the safe space had helped him and he was excited to get his first EPWP contract.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing from the streets to where I am today \u2013 clean, my hair is washed \u2013 I feel excited. I feel that the next three months are going to propel me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said it does take time to adjust to being in a safe space after living on the streets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe streets put me on drugs. It was my choice to take it in the first place, but the conditions, elements, and the type of people that you have to move with to stay safe puts you in the frontline to do drugs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDrugs take your mind off everything. There is no cold; there is no hunger; there\u2019s basically nothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut to come off it, that\u2019s where you find problems. I really wanted to get off because I wanted to live,\u201d said Pierce.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal is to get married. I want children. But to attain that, I first need to heal, fix, and save.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/matthew_hirsch\/image_safe_space_1.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-town-is-removing-homeless-people-from-the-street-this-is-what-the-city-is-offering-instead-2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The City of Cape Town Culemborg Safe Space site has been expanded.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2023 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-town-is-removing-homeless-people-from-the-street-this-is-what-the-city-is-offering-instead.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew Pierce has been living in the Culemborg Safe Space for six months. He said he ended up on the streets after losing both parents when he was 16. Photos: Matthew Hirsch The City of Cape Town says it is increasing its spending on its Safe Spaces programme to R230-million over the next three years. 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