While most agree on the need for a safe space for the homeless locally, the overwhelming sentiment from residents at a City community-engagement session last Thursday (10 July) was “not in my backyard.”
The site identified for the facility is in Murray Street, near Kuils River Station.
Several De Kuilen residents said they were neither properly consulted nor informed, learning of the plans only after the public-comment period on the land-use application had closed (in January).
Franklin Frans, chair of the De Kuilen Neighbourhood Watch, said more than 200 residents had signed a petition.
“We felt we were not informed properly of the safe space in our area.”
Franklin Frans
Safety
He questioned whether any analysis had been done on crime trends in the area. “That safe space is going to attract more people to our area.”
Safety was the main concern raised, such as potential conflict if gang members evicted from other areas encountered rival gangs active in the area. Others felt the City had long neglected their neighbourhood.
“We are not against this,” long-time resident Neville Botha pointed out.
“We are against the way it’s been done.
Kuilsriver
City Planner Akhona Mbenyana explained the rationale for choosing the Murray Street site. In 2018 the City, in partnership with NGOs, conducted a metro-wide enumeration study to count people living on the streets. Kuils River was identified as the eighth-most affected suburb out of 20.
In response, the City launched a street-people’s programme and has allocated more than R230 million since 2023 to expand shelter infrastructure.
Mbenyana said the City’s Community, Arts and Culture Development Department (CACD) and subcouncil provided up-to-date statistics and helped identify homelessness hot spots. He assessed several possible sites, focusing on City-owned land with minimal encumbrances, existing services and proximity to affected areas.
Potato Farm, one of four sites considered, was ruled out due to agricultural zoning, flood risk, the high cost of development and evictions.
The De Kuilen site was selected as it is zoned appropriately, has a structurally-sound City-owned building, and is located in a light industrial area near a homelessness hot spot, the police station and the CBD.
The site is expected to accommodate 134 beds at an estimated cost of R4 million. Completion is projected for May 2027.
Ward 11 councillor Wouter de Vos acknowledged residents’ complaints. He assured them a further opportunity for community input would be arranged, and it would be communicated as required, including via his social media channels.
Homeless people
Cape Town primarily faces chronic homelessness; people living on the streets for many years, said Megan Pangeni, head of the City’s street people programme.
The 2022 census recorded around 6 600 people “sleeping rough” in the metro. Cornelia Jaftha, regional head of community programmes in the CACD, said the actual number is estimated at around 14 000.
“There is a disparity between the number of rough sleepers and the available shelter beds.”
Megan Pangeni
Current shelters
Current shelter capacity is around 2 200 beds, with an additional 1 040 in City safe spaces.
In December last year the City adopted a new strategy to reduce rough sleeping. Pangeni said the approach focuses on prevention (supporting at-risk individuals before they end up on the streets), intervention (outreach, reunification, relocation and safe-space placement) and collaboration among City departments, government, NGOs and civil society.
Pangeni said safe spaces are transitional facilities offering accommodation, meals, sanitation and psychosocial support; a pathway to reintegration and dignity, supported through collaboration between City departments and NGOs.
Many individuals have successfully left the streets after time in these facilities, she added.
Safe space seen as essential
With a growing number of people illegally occupying public spaces, safe spaces are increasingly seen as essential.
“When the City applies for evictions, the court wants to know where people will be relocated to.”
Megan Pangeni
“You can’t simply remove people from the streets; they are human beings. Many cannot return to their families due to the very circumstances that led them to the streets.
“We provide alternative accommodation, which is why 98% of the City’s eviction applications to date have been successful. Safe spaces help reduce visible homelessness in public areas.”
Pangeni added that safe spaces also contribute to public safety and sanitation.
“Each safe space has 24-hour security and on-site personnel. Staff are always present, and security teams are stationed in and around the facility to maintain peace and monitor the perimeter both inside and outside.”
Hot spots
Jaftha said her team of 12 dedicated staff, working with street people from Kuils River to Gordon’s Bay, engages daily by doing screenings to establishing identification and origin of individuals to track movement.
There are four local hot spots that her team concentrate on: Potato Farm (with 35 people, “an evolving number”), Kuils River Cemetery (30 or more, and some known gangsters), Pondorosa, Sarepta (26) and behind Atlantic Fisheries (nine permanent residents).
“These are the most populated,” said Jaftha. “The ones that are growing daily.”
City social workers do not go to the Donkerhoek informal settlement, which is on rail agency Prasa’s property, but do engage with the residents when they are out “skarreling” (hustling), Jaftha said.
“There are 83 people permanently on the street in Kuils River, all in the Main (Van Riebeeck) Road.”
“Six people had died on the street in Kuils River since the start of winter.”
Cornelia Jaftha
Social workers conduct up to six follow-up visits to individuals to build trust, but no-one can be forced to accept assistance, she said.
Jaftha believes there are many myths among residents about safe spaces.
Ernst Vorndran from Aksie Samaritaan, which runs the soup kitchen near the station, said stakeholders working with the homeless requested the identified building as a safe space two years ago.
“The homeless are already in the area, and this facility will help get them off the streets.”
He added residents should note what a representative of MES, the NGO involved with the Bellville Safe Space, said at a stakeholder meeting: “Crime decreases where there’s a safe space.”
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