City in drive to make street life better for its homeless

THE Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) is putting its money where its mouth is this winter.

It’s rolling out interventions, including Street Sleeper bags, to ease the plight of those living on the street.

The CCID Social Development team’s tagline is “Show You Care”, which is the ethos by which it works every day.

Now the organisation is going a few steps further, and hoping to inspire others to do the same.

As part of the project, the CCID purchased 150 “show you care”-branded Street Sleepers for distribution to its street clients in 2017.

Street Sleeper is a Woodstock-based NPO that upcycles vinyl billboards into sleeping bags.

This transforms the negative impact of waste into immediate relief for those living on the street.

The bag is durable and waterproof, and transforms into a carrier bag for storing possessions during the day.

At night, the user can fill the pillow-slip area with clothes for head support.

And in the event of a Street Sleeper going missing, a CCID fieldworker will be able to return the bag, when found, through a numbering system that will link the property back to the original recipient.

The CCID took delivery of 150 Street Sleepers on June 15.

The Cape Town Central City has a street population of 700 in and on its borders. This extends to more than 1 200 if you include people who sleep rough in the surrounding neighbourhoods but spend much of their time downtown.

Although they live in the public eye, the depth of their trauma is either often overlooked or considered to be a burden to a society that does not yet fully comprehend how limited the access to formal services or shelter is in Cape Town.

CCID social development manager Pat Eddy said: “The only way to understand and assist is to treat them like you would anyone else. And that requires caring and compassion.

“This is a particularly pertinent issue in the colder, wetter months, when storms like we had two weeks ago make life very difficult for those without shelter.”

Every winter, the CCID puts in place a few important interventions to ease the plight of street people, supplementing the assistance its social development fieldworkers already render every single day.

This year, as in previous years, the CCID will be providing 100 waterproof ponchos, as well as instant soup, for distribution by the fieldworkers to their clients as needed.

It is also working with Youth Solutions Africa’s Woodstock shelter to ensure it has enough bed space for up to 30 of its clients every night.

CCID chief executive officer Tasso Evangelinos said: “Many may say we are encouraging and enabling people to sleep on the streets. The reality is that, as with all other neighbourhoods throughout the city, whether there are city improvement districts or not, we have a street community.” The CCID is also rolling out a street pole poster campaign around the CBD to draw attention to the disparity between those who have shelter and those who don’t, and as a call to action to the public and other sectors.

Evangelinos appeals to them to also show they care, saying: “Until there are enough facilities to accommodate the homeless, we need to find solutions that best meet the challenges.

“And we will only find the ultimate solutions when we all work together – private, public and NGO sectors.

“But for now, let’s all at least do the best we can to help the truly destitute.

“It’s all part of being a caring central city we can be proud of.”