The City is developing a new strategy to reduce homelessness, and help people living on the street, but lack of data is a drawback
In its new policy on homelessness currently being developed, the City of Cape Town acknowledges a lack of accurate data on the number of homeless people in the city. As such, the City cannot put numbers to the different categories of homeless people, such as how many are disabled, or are chronically or temporarily homeless. This means interventions, the monitoring and evaluation of interventions, and the allocation of resources are all affected.
The only estimate on Cape Town’s population of homeless people contained in the draft City of Cape Town Strategy to Reduce Rough Sleeping, authored by “City professionals” according to mayco member for community services and health, Patricia van der Ross, is from the 2022 census, which found 6,630 “rough sleepers” on the city’s streets.
However, a pre-Covid lockdown report by U-Turn, an organisation assisting homeless people, in 2019 estimated there were 14,357 street people in Cape Town. The report was published before the Covid lockdown, which led to a significant increase in homelessness in the city.
The lack of accurate figures is noted in the new strategy, the first since the Social Development Strategy and Street People Policy of 2013, which it replaces, as one of a number of problems in developing meaningful policy.
Other problems are the lack of an overarching national framework to address homelessness, which has never existed in South Africa. This lack has led to “incoherent homelessness policy and strategy at all government levels”.
Also problematic is that homelessness is both driven by and often results in, issues such as substance abuse, family dysfunction and conflict, mental illness, physical illness, poverty, unemployment, and a lack of social security. These need to be coherently addressed, states the new strategy, as homelessness is not just about lack of a home.
Further, the strategy notes there has been little strategic alignment across City departments and directorates, including with law enforcement departments who develop and enforce by-laws.
The City has come under for for this in the past, with the Western Cape High Court in 2019 ordering the City to stop enforcing aspects of the 2007 Public Places and the Prevention of Noise Nuisance bylaw, and the 2009 Integrated Waste Management bylaw, which included fining homeless people for infringements. The court ordered the City to review their bylaws. Despite this, bylaw amendments in September 2021 were still criticised by some civic organisations.
Scope of operations
The new strategy defines the scope of the City’s strategy which includes City-led programmes such as using the Expanded Public Works Programme to create work opportunities for homeless people, and running the Matrix Clinics, of which there are currently eight in the city, to help people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol.
Within the scope is the City’s responsibility for providing safe spaces, of which there are currently three – two at Culemborg and one in Bellville offering a total 1,670 beds, with a new safe space of 400 beds in the offing – and assisting NGOs with funding, as well as buildings or land to be able to offer shelter, work opportunities, and drug rehabilitation.
The City is also responsible for removing homeless people from City-owned buildings or land which are illegally occupied, cleaning public places, incentivising communities to maintain public places and donate to shelters, and communicate opportunities for shelter, work, and drug rehabilitation to homeless people.
The strategy does not cover facilities operated by the provincial government, support for street children, psychological assessments, or removing homeless people who are illegally occupying buildings or land that do not belong to the City.
Three-pronged strategy
There are three arms to the strategy: Prevention, intervention, and collaboration and partnerships.
The strategy states that while “the externalities” of being homeless might lead to homeless people breaking City bylaws, being homeless is not a crime.
It warns that if the balance between bylaws and the rights and needs of homeless people is not met, it can lead to further social exclusion.
At the same time, the City has a duty to protect and maintain public space, and ensure everyone is able to make use of it and enjoy it. Reducing the number of homeless people would assist with this. Thus preventing homelessness is a primary aim of the strategy, which requires understanding what leads to people becoming homeless.
Intervention, to help homeless people access job opportunities, housing, and health care, is the second of the strategy’s aims.
The third aspect of the strategy is collaborating and partnering with government agencies, NGO’s, health care providers, community leaders, and “individuals with lived experiences of rough sleepers” to help expand support programmes, create new ones, or combine and strengthen existing ones.
Focus areas
There is a repeated focus on data collection to be able to prevent homelessness and know what homeless people need to reintegrate with families and society, and what this costs, so that funding can be allocated and funding streams found.
Along with data collection, is monitoring and evaluation to determine which programmes work and which don’t.
There is also a strong focus on aligning City legislation and policies to prevent homelessness, and to review and alter them if contradictions exist.
A forum including “relevant spheres of government” as well as civil organisations will be established to meet every three months to address intervention measures, funding, to share data, and discuss requirements
The City will also assess how various interventions contribute toward preventing and reducing homelessness over time, particularly in relation to the work of the Social Development and Early Child Development Department.
Compiling the strategy
Research to compile the strategy involved “several data collection techniques” which included focus group discussions, interviews, and workshops, said van der Ross.
She said there were “extensive consultations, both within the City and externally with all relevant stakeholders, including the NPO sector and people sleeping rough”.
Asked what the City is doing to ensure existing bylaws are changed to ensure the poor and homeless are not criminalised and weighed with a debt burden (through fines) that create a further obstacle to them getting off the street, the answer, which was attributed to “the City of Cape Town”, was that the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act was applied where a person created “a dwelling” in a public place.
The “City of Cape Town” said a social development approach was followed, with social assistance and “dignified transitional shelter coupled with social interventions” offered to help people off the streets.
The “City of Cape Town” said the Streets, Public Places and Prevention of Noise Nuisances Bylaw was not used to fine anyone for being homeless as it was not an offence to sleep on the streets, “if you do not have a choice”.
But if someone sleeping on the street refused offers of shelter and social assistance, the law would “take its course as a necessary last resort deterrent for the sustainable management of public places”.
However, the “City of Cape Town” said in these cases it was preferred the courts ordered rehabilitation rather than applying fines or imprisonment.
Stakeholder response
U-turn chief communication officer Valerie Govender said the organisation was involved in initial consulations on the City’s strategy, and would continue to engage with the development of the policy from its draft stage to final approval.
Govender said the strategy was “strong in some areas and needs improvement in others”.
The problem statement was “very well articulated” but the implementation tended to “focus more on
activities than outcomes”, thus needed more development.
She said it was good that the City was revising its policy as the current approach was not working well.
“The revised policy shows a commitment towards a more caring and effective approach,” she said, and if implemented effectively, would reduce homelessness in Cape Town.
“ U-turn applaud the release of city-owned land and facilities. However, in the past this process has been slow and bogged down in red tape so the implementation is key and needs to be improved.”
She said the shift to a continuum of care, rather than a focus on once-off interventions, was something the organisation was “very happy to see”, as it was what their own model was based on.
Van der Ross said the strategy would hopefully be tabled before full council in September for approval. The window for comments on the draft strategy closed on 22 May.