To address social issues and reports of aggressive begging especially during the festive period, the Cape Town Central City Improvement District’s (CCID) Social Development team and the City of Cape Town’s Department of Social Development partnered to deploy eight additional field workers in the Central City to engage and assist street people.
Referring to street people as their clients, the CCID’s Social Development team engages with the Central City’s most vulnerable daily and concentrates much of its effort on assisting street people towards the services they need.
However, believes Pat Eddy, Social Development manager for the CCID, there is no easy fix towards helping the homeless on the streets of the CBD: “And that is why building partnerships is so important in the quest to find solutions.
“During the festive period, we’ve observed that there are more people begging in the Central City. With this partnership programme between ourselves and the City, the focus is therefore on assessing how best we can deal with this type of behaviour overall, and in turn ultimately rather assist those begging towards the types of social services that could alleviate their need to beg in the first place.”
Since 20 December 2017, the additional field workers - who form part of the City’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) – have been covering St Georges Mall (Waterkant to Wale Street), Long Street (Strand to Wale streets and Shortmarket to Wale streets) and Greenmarket Square (Burg to Wale streets) and will continue to do so until 18 March 2018.
Pat further explains: “In the near future, we will meet with our colleagues at City Social Development to assess the programme in its entirety, discover what lessons we can we take from the exercise, and work out if it needs to be extended beyond the festive period. However, so far, I am pleased with the feedback I have been receiving from my own team of fieldworkers on the ground.”
CCID fieldworker Shanien Stemmett (seen right, above) has been working closely with the City field workers since they started and says it’s progressing well: “In my opinion, the programme has been very successful thus far. I’ve worked with them [the City’s fieldworkers], they enjoy what they do and most importantly, know what they’re doing and have thus been able to assist a number of clients.”
Besides this partnership with the City, the CCID’s Social Development department works closely with several NGOs throughout the metropole. Its six primary partners in the Central City include:
- Youth Solutions Africa which provides shelter as well as skills training programmes for men and women
- The Carpenter's Shop which provides ablution facilities, a second-phase shelter and vocational training
- Khulisa Social Solutions which engages in work-based rehabilitation for the chronically homeless
- Straatwerk, the rehabilitation NGO with whom the CCID’s Urban Management department also engages in terms of the provision of additional cleaning services, assistance with beautification projects and road maintenance in the CBD
- The Homestead which offers accommodation, family reunification and reintegration services to boys living on the street
- Ons Plek which offers accommodation, family reunification and reintegration services to girls living on the street.
Images by CCID and Ed Suter. Main image: CCID fieldworker Mark Williams (top left), and CCID Social Development manager, Pat Eddy (top, third from right) with the City’s EPWP fieldworkers