GOOD Statement by Suzette Little,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
17 July 2024
GOOD calls on the City of Cape Town to stop playing PR games with the lives of the homeless and provide comprehensive care to this community.
Recent media reports have painted a horrific picture of the conditions in the City’s so-called “Safe Spaces” which officials have been presenting as “world-class” transitional shelters for those living on the streets.
This could not be further from the truth, and Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is either ill-informed or blatantly dishonest when it comes to the City’s interventions in the ongoing crisis. Even in the courts, the City has been relying on arguments that it has provided dignified alternative accommodation to support its application for eviction orders.
One of these sites in particular, the Culemborg Safe Space One, is overcrowded and infested with lice and rats, while portable bathrooms are not being adequately serviced and have forced people to rely on buckets. These unhygienic conditions are posing a serious threat to the well-being of residents.
Even more concerning, is that this specific already overcrowded facility has been offered to the additional 120 individuals who will be evicted from seven “hotspots” in the CBD at the end of this month.
Throughout this process, the City and the Mayor have proven to be dishonest and set on painting an untrue picture of a City that cares.
Just days after the court granted the eviction order, the City requested its service provider to inform female residents over 60 and those who have been at the safe space for over 3 months, that they will have to move to the Bellville safe space or face eviction. This information has not been shared with either the court or the general public.
If the City truly cared about addressing the homeless crisis in an effective, long-term, and dignified manner, it would have started with a sincere effort to determine exactly how many people actually require assistance. Instead, they spend most of their time painting residents as ungrateful for not wanting to live in these inhumane conditions.
On top of the degrading conditions, the restrictions of these shelters are not geared towards supporting efforts to find or create work for themselves to get them off the streets.
The City has a budget of R90 million for homeless interventions and R8.5 million is allocated per safe space. The majority of spending for safe spaces is allocated to tenders (38%) and security (25%), and only 5% on upliftment and treatment programmes for the residents.
GOOD calls for both rapid rehousing, interim housing and permanent supportive housing to help people move into independent housing. We need to change the narrative and the understanding of the massive challenge at hand, instead of presenting those on the streets as drug addicts and criminals.
Finally, we call on the City to include the homeless community in the decision-making processes to ensure strategies, policies and solutions are effective and practical.
Media Enquiries:
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 073 367 1223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za
Suzette Little COCT Councillor
Cell: 073 321 5036
Email: suzettel@forgood.org.za