Night Shelter lauds City

FAILED promises of job offers and being unable to get back home are just some of the reasons people end up homeless.

The City of Cape Town’s Street People Programme will be conducting research into the underlying reasons behind homelessness over the next 12 months, in hopes to better understand the issue. After their previous research the city found that more than 7 000 people were homeless and their programme assisted more than 2 500 street people.

The Haven Night Shelter chief executive Hassan Khan said the city’s assistance was noted and a difference was noticeable.

“The City has become a lot more directly involved and they have intensified their services. They offer a range of services like deployment of fieldworkers and reintegration officers, that help people go home directly.”

Khan said they welcomed the City’s efforts, particularly those to get people home.

“All poorly dressed people are not homeless, most come into the city to make an income whether it be odd jobs or begging and so on. They end up on the streets when they can’t make it home.”

The research will interrogate pathways to homelessness, the homeless culture and trends, and the characteristics of people who find themselves on the streets, while also seeking to determine who has been on the street over the long-term, who is new, and why.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security and social services JP Smith said the research would help inform the progress of existing interventions.

“Homelessness continues to be one of the most complex and emotive issues that the city deals with. There are no easy answers and so we continually have to reassess the landscape as well as our approach and whether we can do things better.”

Smith said the city has set aside just under R7 million to continue providing assistance to as many street people as possible, with a view to helping them off the street permanently. “Many of the people we find on the streets are job seekers from other parts of the city or the country.”