Delays as City of Cape Town prepares to evict people from seven inner city sites, offering alternative living space at new shelter

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis at the official opening of Ebenezer Safe Space for homeless people.(Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

By Tamsin Metelerkamp

31 Jul 2024

The City celebrated the opening of the Ebenezer Safe Space on Monday, 29 July – a new shelter that is being offered as alternative accommodation for people who will be evicted from seven sites in the inner city over the coming week.

The relocation of more than 100 unhoused persons from seven sites around Cape Town’s CBD to city-funded shelters will be taking place between 5 and 8 August. While the eviction of people from these sites was initially expected to take place from 30 July, as per a high court order issued in June, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute – which represented the evictees in court – said it was still finalising an agreement with the City of Cape Town when this month drew to a close.

The Western Cape Division of the High Court in Cape Town ruling on the evictions stated that the City needed to offer alternative accommodation to the people who would be removed from the seven sites. At the time the order was handed down, the evictees were going to be offered places at the city’s Safe Space One shelter under the Culemborg Bridge on the Cape Town Foreshore, according to Nkosinathi Sithole, senior attorney at Socio-Economic Rights Institute.

“The issues that we had were with the relocation (of people) to Safe Space One, which pertained to the conditions at Safe Space One. These included people sleeping outside (and) it not being a closed shelter, exposing (people to) the elements. Now, an agreement that we are reaching with the municipality… is that our clients will no longer be relocated to Safe Space One but will… be relocated to Safe Space Three. Those who live with partners (will go to) Safe Space Two,” said Sithole.

Staggered evictions

“In light of this new agreement, the eviction will have to be staggered, meaning that there won't be an eviction this week... up until people are relocated.”

Sithole said that 127 unhoused persons had accepted the offer of alternative accommodation at Safe Space Three in Green Point, which the city has named the Ebenezer Safe Space. Another 13 couples will be accommodated at Safe Space Two under the Culemborg Bridge.

According to the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, one of the conditions that the City needed to meet to evict the occupants of the seven sites was to amend the shelter rules to make them more “constitutionally compliant”.

“After the amendments, partners will not be separated into gender‑segregated accommodation but will be allowed to live together; shelter residents will not be locked out during the day; and people will not be limited to six months living at the safe spaces if they do not have alternative accommodation,” it said.

Eviction sites

Inus Gouws, who lives at the encampment on the corner of Strand and Buitengracht Street, is one of the people who has accepted the offer of alternative accommodation at Safe Space Three. He worked as an IT specialist and data modeller until the onset of Covid-19, when he and seven colleagues were laid off. While on the street, he fell victim to a physical attack that left him with permanent injuries to his back.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Cold reality – many of us are closer to living on the street than we think

He said that he had been counting down the nights until he would be relocated to the shelter. While there, he hopes to receive support from social workers who will help him to find work and regain his independence.

Inus Gouws in Buitengracht Street where he stays in a very basic plastic shelter, on 24 July 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

“If we are in Safe Space, we can at least wash our clothes and have a shower and whatnot... Then we might not be seen as homeless and would probably be treated a little bit better,” he said.

Some people living at the seven sites have indicated that they will not accept the offer of alternative accommodation at the city’s Safe Spaces.

Miena Snico, a resident of the encampment under the bridge where Helen Suzman Boulevard intersects with Buitengracht Street, told Daily Maverick that she had been on the waiting list for a Reconstruction and Development Programme house for 15 years. She has been living on the street for more than two decades. She said that she didn’t want to move to a shelter, but rather a proper house.

“We need help, we want houses… Then I can get my kids (and) live as a happy family and forget the past,” she said. “We are not pigs… Why do they treat us like pigs?”

Cramped conditions

According to Fowler Felix, an occupant of the encampment alongside the Castle of Good Hope, some people are reluctant to move to the shelters due to the cramped conditions, lack of privacy and strict rules at the sites. He said he had been living on the street for 17 years, after moving out of the area he grew up in to escape a gang.

“They’re gonna move us out of here but we don’t have anywhere to go,” he said.

Fowler Felix and Lebo Fihlani (inside tent) at the encampment on Strand Street near the Castle of Good Hope on 17 July 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

Daily Maverick asked the City of Cape Town about the plan for the people who refused alternative accommodation at Safe Spaces. It responded: “Acceptance of the City’s offer of Safe Space shelter is voluntary. Those who refuse it are required to leave the occupied area and may not reoccupy it as per the court order.”

According to the City, the people who will be relocated to Safe Space will be assisted with transport for their belongings.

“From the City’s side, both the Displaced People’s Unit and officials with the City’s Community, Arts and Culture Department (formerly Social Development) will be on site for the operation,” it said.

Opening of Ebenezer Safe Space

The City of Cape Town opened the 300-bed Ebenezer Safe Space on Monday, 29 July. According to Megan Pangeni, head of the Street People Programme for the city’s Community, Arts and Culture Development Department, the project has been in the works for about two years.

Speaking at the opening of the shelter, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said: “You’ve transformed this cold, dead void underneath a bridge into this place that is going to be a place of life and restoration for all of the clients who come here.

“It all starts with getting people off the street into dignified alternative shelter. There are many reasons why people are on the street, but we believe that every one of them – no matter what state of health you are in, no matter what state your family relationships are in – can experience restoration. You can get back on your feet, you can heal those relationships over time and get back into productive work, get back into society.”

Family reintegration

Residents of the shelter would be provided with counselling aimed at family reintegration, and referrals for addiction programmes and psychiatric care where needed, said Hill-Lewis.

A former resident of Safe Space Two, Showen Loeks, spoke about his experience at the city’s shelter. He spent many years working as a mechanical technician at Sasol and later Kusile Power Station, but lost his home after the money he had laid down for a new house never made it to the property developer – a matter he says is still under investigation by the SAPS.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis at the official opening of Ebenezer Safe Space for homeless people on July 29, 2024. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

He stayed at Safe Space Two between October 2023 and April 2024. During that time, the shelter’s social workers assisted with a developmental plan that led to him moving into his own flat.

The opening of the Ebenezer Safe Space comes two weeks after Daily Maverick reported on allegations of poor living conditions at the City’s Safe Space One shelter. Occupants of Safe Space One said that apart from the bridge about 15m up, the cover at the site consisted of corrugated iron roofs on poles, with no walls, and beds lined alongside one another underneath. They also claimed that rats were getting into beds and bags, gnawing through belongings like blankets and biting those living there.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘A travesty of human rights’ — Cape Town shelter occupants tell of degrading conditions

The City has stated that sleeping quarters are protected and monthly pest control services are provided at the site, adding that on a scale of dignity and health, there was “no comparison” between what the city was offering at the Safe Spaces and what the occupants endured on the street.

Daily Maverick asked the City about the plans for the Safe Space One site at the opening of Ebenezer Safe Space. Pangeni said: “We have a concept that we signed off on last year already for the upgrades, specifically for the ablution blocks. However, we are now in the process of changing the concept to replicate what we have at Safe Space Two with the prefabricated buildings. So, that’s in the pipeline.”

Hill-Lewis added: “The point to make is that it’s still much better and more dignified than living on the street… It provides toilets, food, showers, safe storage space, some shelter from the elements… And if we can upgrade it even further so that it starts to emulate our latest safe spaces, then all the better.” DM

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