Comment opens on new Safe Space to help more people off the streets in the CBD

05 April 2023

Public comment opens on Thursday 6 April on the City’s plans to create a new Safe Space facility to help more people off the streets in the CBD and Atlantic Seaboard. The proposed 300-bed Safe Space is located on a portion of a City roads depot under the fly-over bridge on Ebenezer Road in the Green Point CBD. 

The proposed 300-bed Safe Space is well-positioned to help more people off the streets in the CBD and seaboard area. The planning application for this facility is now open for  public comment by affected parties until 8 May 2023.

City Safe Spaces offer dignified transitional shelter to help people off the streets, coupled with programmes to promote reintegration into society, or reunification with family. Addiction treatment, referrals for psychiatric treatment, personal development planning and employment opportunities are also on offer. Accepting social assistance to get off the streets is the best choice for dignity, health, and well-being. Equally, no person has the right to exclusively reserve a public space while indefinitely refusing all offers of social assistance. 

The City is demonstrating its commitment to helping more people off the streets by raising Safe Space budgets by 62% over the next three years. Around R230m is projected to expand and operate these facilities within the CBD, Bellville, and various other economic nodes in the city. The City has also raised its overall annual Street People programme budget to R95 million for 23/24, a more than 23% increase year-on-year as the only metro in South Africa dedicating a social development budget for care interventions on this crucial issue. This budget is over and above the ongoing support the City provides to NGOs assisting the homeless, including grant-in-aid funding.

The City currently operates two Safe Spaces at Culemborg in the east CBD which offers 480 shelter beds across the facilities. The new Ebenezer Road facility is set to bolster overall capacity in the CBD area by a further 300 beds, with yet more new beds to follow as the City works to help expand NGO-run shelters operating on municipal-owned land in central Cape Town.

The City is further gearing up for an annual seasonal bed boost as part of its Winter Readiness Campaign 2023.

Elsewhere in the City, Safe Space capacity is set to increase in Bellville, Muizenberg and Durbanville in the coming months. The City is also making progress on re-purposing other municipal-owned sites elsewhere in the metro, working together with NGO partners, CIDs and residents.

Since the start of the 22/23 financial year in July 2022, city-wide City social development interventions have resulted in:

·       1453 people helped off the streets

·       942 people participating in development programmes at Safe Spaces

·       409 EPWP work placements for those staying at Safe Spaces and shelters

·       382 referrals for social grants, IDs, specialised care and mental health facilities, and substance abuse treatment

The Safe Space model includes:

·       dignified shelter,

·       comfort and ablutions,

·       two meals per day,

·       access to a social worker on-site,

·       personal development planning,

·       various social services including ID Book and social grant assistance,

·       family reunification services

·       access to substance and alcohol abuse treatment,

·       skills training,

·       help finding a job, and

·       access to EPWP work placement

Comment on the proposed Safe Space at Ebenezer Road:

1.    Any objection, comment or representation about the proposal must be submitted on the prescribed form with reasons therefor and may be submitted to the following email address: comments_objections.tablebay@capetown.gov.za or submitted in writing to the office of the Table Bay District Office on or before the closing date of 8 May 2023 – district office email tablebay.hub@capetown.gov.za

2.    The prescribed form can be downloaded at the following link: http://www.capetown.gov.za/LandUseObjections

3.    The application may be inspected during office hours at the relevant District Office. Please arrange an appointment with the relevant district office via email: tablebay.hub@capetown.gov.za

Caption: Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis visiting a City-run Safe Space in the CBD. The facility provides a dignified transitional shelter to help people off the streets.

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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office