Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Monday officially opened a new 300-bed Safe Space shelter, based at a portion of the municipal depot on Ebenezer Road in Green Point.

This is the fifth Safe Space to be opened by the City and takes the total beds to 1070 across all five facilities.

It comes as the eviction is looming for more than a 100 individuals who are occupying public spaces across the Metro.

This includes homeless groups along Buitengracht Street, FW de Klerk Boulevard, Foregate Square, Helen Suzman Boulevard, Strand Street, Foreshore/N1, Virginia Avenue and Mill Street Bridge in the city centre.

READ: CT Homelessness Crisis: Protests against evictions

The Western Cape High Court last month granted the City an eviction order, to be effective from 31 July 2024, but the judge also ordered the City to provide people with alternative accommodation at one of the City of Cape Town’s shelters.

In another concession, the City also agreed to amend the shelter rules to make them more humane and compliant with the Constitution.

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The City operates two further Safe Spaces at Culemborg in the east CBD (510 beds total), as well as Paint City Bellville (220 beds) and Durbanville (40 beds). A new Safe Space is also on the cards to service the greater Muizenberg area.

READ: Durbanville’s new Safe Space homeless shelter

Hill-Lewis says this new Safe Space in Green Point will make a huge difference to the overall shelter capacity to help more people off the streets in central Cape Town.

‘Cape Town is making an unprecedented investment of R220 million to expand and operate our Safe Space shelters around the city. In this way we are putting caring, social developmental approaches at the centre of our strategy to help more homeless people off the streets, and to ensure that public places are open and available to all.

‘Accepting social assistance to get off the streets is the best choice for dignity, health, and well-being. No person has the right to reserve a public space as exclusively theirs, while indefinitely refusing all offers of shelter and social assistance.’

Last year, the City further enabled a 63% bed boost to the CBD’s Haven Night Shelter, expanding this NGO-run facility from 96 to 156 beds via a R500 000 cost contribution.

The Mayoral Committee for Community Services and Health Patricia van der Ross says the City helps around 3 500 people annually with shelter placement or referrals to an array of social services.

Individuals who accept social assistance will receive the following at a Safe Space:

• 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