Cape Town opens new Safe Space shelter for the homeless

A new shelter for the homeless

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis recently opened the City’s new 300-bed Safe Space shelter to help more homeless off the streets in central Cape Town.

According to the City, the facility, based at a portion of the municipal depot on Ebenezer Road in Green Point, is the fifth Safe Space to be opened by the City and takes the total beds to 1070 across these facilities in Cape Town.

What are Safe Spaces?

City-funded Safe Spaces are transitional shelter and social programmes to assist people off the streets sustainably, reintegrate them into society, and reunite them with family. Personal development planning and employment opportunities are made available, as are referrals for mental health, medical, and substance abuse treatment.

The City of Cape Town 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.

‘It is a joy to open this brand new Safe Space in Green Point, which will make a huge difference to the overall shelter capacity to help more people off the streets in central Cape Town.” Mayor Hill-Lewis said at the opening.

‘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.” the mayor added.

Last year, the City also 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.