THE City of Cape Town has unveiled an extensive and ambitious plan to get homeless people off the street leading up to the winter season - 34 days before thousands of soccer fans descend upon the city for the World Cup.
Working closely with NGOs, the city plans to accommodate, employ and reunite with their families hundreds of homeless men and women. The plan details how the homeless will be categorised into groups and how they will benefit.
Armed with more than 1 000 disposable razors, 6 000 bars of soap, 6 000 toothbrushes, 4 000 tubes of toothpaste and 1 000 blankets, the city is also to make sure the people are clean and well groomed for the duration of the programme. It will also create 600 temporary jobs to assist vulnerable people with the reintegration process, paying them R40 a shift. And for the first time, the city has set up a homeless people operation centre that will co-ordinate all activities and function after normal working hours.
The city has identified "high-risk areas" to be targeted, including Green Point, Grand Parade, Cape Town Station, Long Street, the Company's Garden, Adderley Street, Buitenkant Street and Garden Centre.
With the police's help, the city will also clamp down on antisocial behaviour such as begging, harassing people, doing washing in public, drunken behaviour and skarreling (hustling).
On April 29, the city's mayoral committee approved the earlier-than-normal launch of the city's annual Winter Readiness Plan for street people, which coincides with the soccer showpiece.
It has also increased the budget allocation from R300 000 to R500 000 this year.
However, before approving the plan the committee raised a number of concerns about street people and their origin.
Mayor Dan Plato said that in his public meetings with various communities, residents had complained vigorously about the street people.
"We also hope that the earlier launch will help us deal with the expected increased numbers of homeless people in the City Bowl over the World Cup period," said mayco member for social development Grant Pascoe.
The plan also aims to provide additional resources and support to qualifying NGOs to enable them to be prepared for the expected influx of street people into the city.
"The Haven Night Shelter will be the lead service provider on this project, due to their record of excellence in the field of working with homeless persons. They will partner with NGOs across Cape Town, including Straatwerk and TASP (Tygerberg Association for Street People)," said Pascoe.
He said the city anticipated 10 new beneficiaries a day for 60 days.
"This will enable persons to earn money in a dignified way to assist in their reunification."
Homeless Agency Committee chairman Ernest Sonnenberg said street children would also be catered for.
"We have beefed up our budget because we realised that we might not be able to predict the influx of people who seek job opportunities. And the plan used to be three months previously. This year it will start on May 15 until about August."
The city council and NGOs have also denied claims that the plan was merely to get the homeless off the streets for the World Cup.
Haven Night Shelter Organisation chief executive Hassan Khan said the programme was not intended to reunite homeless people with their families before the tournament but "designed and used annually as a top-up support enabling participating shelters to do what we do every day of the year at a time when our resources are stretched due to the increased demand for our services as a result of the cold, wet winters we have in Cape Town."
But he said that with the World Cup only 34 days away, more street people were expected as more people came to the cities attracted by the "vibe".
"Our task is to get to people living on the streets before they acquire survival skills on the streets. Once a person survives a winter on the streets it is even more difficult to persuade him to consider getting back home."
The Ark co-ordinator Jack Mahoney said the plan was "definitely" not to rid the streets of the homeless in time for the event. "It's not a plan to clean up our streets. This is to make a difference in their lives. It's not a clean-up operation and we... thank God for the city's compassion," he said.
Working closely with NGOs, the city plans to accommodate, employ and reunite with their families hundreds of homeless men and women. The plan details how the homeless will be categorised into groups and how they will benefit.
Armed with more than 1 000 disposable razors, 6 000 bars of soap, 6 000 toothbrushes, 4 000 tubes of toothpaste and 1 000 blankets, the city is also to make sure the people are clean and well groomed for the duration of the programme. It will also create 600 temporary jobs to assist vulnerable people with the reintegration process, paying them R40 a shift. And for the first time, the city has set up a homeless people operation centre that will co-ordinate all activities and function after normal working hours.
The city has identified "high-risk areas" to be targeted, including Green Point, Grand Parade, Cape Town Station, Long Street, the Company's Garden, Adderley Street, Buitenkant Street and Garden Centre.
With the police's help, the city will also clamp down on antisocial behaviour such as begging, harassing people, doing washing in public, drunken behaviour and skarreling (hustling).
On April 29, the city's mayoral committee approved the earlier-than-normal launch of the city's annual Winter Readiness Plan for street people, which coincides with the soccer showpiece.
It has also increased the budget allocation from R300 000 to R500 000 this year.
However, before approving the plan the committee raised a number of concerns about street people and their origin.
Mayor Dan Plato said that in his public meetings with various communities, residents had complained vigorously about the street people.
"We also hope that the earlier launch will help us deal with the expected increased numbers of homeless people in the City Bowl over the World Cup period," said mayco member for social development Grant Pascoe.
The plan also aims to provide additional resources and support to qualifying NGOs to enable them to be prepared for the expected influx of street people into the city.
"The Haven Night Shelter will be the lead service provider on this project, due to their record of excellence in the field of working with homeless persons. They will partner with NGOs across Cape Town, including Straatwerk and TASP (Tygerberg Association for Street People)," said Pascoe.
He said the city anticipated 10 new beneficiaries a day for 60 days.
"This will enable persons to earn money in a dignified way to assist in their reunification."
Homeless Agency Committee chairman Ernest Sonnenberg said street children would also be catered for.
"We have beefed up our budget because we realised that we might not be able to predict the influx of people who seek job opportunities. And the plan used to be three months previously. This year it will start on May 15 until about August."
The city council and NGOs have also denied claims that the plan was merely to get the homeless off the streets for the World Cup.
Haven Night Shelter Organisation chief executive Hassan Khan said the programme was not intended to reunite homeless people with their families before the tournament but "designed and used annually as a top-up support enabling participating shelters to do what we do every day of the year at a time when our resources are stretched due to the increased demand for our services as a result of the cold, wet winters we have in Cape Town."
But he said that with the World Cup only 34 days away, more street people were expected as more people came to the cities attracted by the "vibe".
"Our task is to get to people living on the streets before they acquire survival skills on the streets. Once a person survives a winter on the streets it is even more difficult to persuade him to consider getting back home."
The Ark co-ordinator Jack Mahoney said the plan was "definitely" not to rid the streets of the homeless in time for the event. "It's not a plan to clean up our streets. This is to make a difference in their lives. It's not a clean-up operation and we... thank God for the city's compassion," he said.
- Cape Times
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