Cape Argus

A RESPONSE TO CITY’S STRATEGY TO REDUCE ROUGH SLEEPING

THIS is part one of a three-part column. I promised you an in-depth look at the City’s draft strategy to reduce rough sleeping in Cape Town and that is what I will be sharing with you over the next three weeks. To say I am disappoint­ed would be an understate­ment.

I was optimistic after my first reading of the draft strategy. Unfortunat­ely, I think that is the City’s intention – to persuade those who read it to believe the City’s new strategy will be addressing the failures.

I wouldn’t blame anyone for reading through the strategy, released for comment over a week ago, and coming to the conclusion that the City is finally seeing homelessne­ss for what it is.

The strategy acknowledg­es that the issue of rough sleeping is multifacet­ed and complex and correctly distinguis­hes between various categories of rough sleepers and recognises that rough sleepers are themselves not a homogeneou­s group.

It goes on to say that rough sleeping requires a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, as the City alone cannot address it.

The term “street people”, from the City’s 2013 policy, has been changed to “rough sleepers”. In defining the term, the City has, for the first time, correctly included those in shelters and safe spaces, as its prison-style dormitory rooms which afford no privacy cannot ever be considered homes.

All the statements can easily be taken at face value and have the effect the City is aiming for – convince critics it is moving in the right direction.

The strategy document goes on to list how the City has historical­ly and unsuccessf­ully dealt with homelessne­ss. It concludes by admitting that despite all its efforts, the pressures that result in homelessne­ss have overtaken the capacity of its interventi­ons.

This is a huge statement to make as it validates all the claims by its critics that the City does not have the capacity to house even those living on the streets willing to accept assistance and is out of its depth in trying to make a significan­t dent in reducing the numbers on the streets.

Homelessne­ss and associated rough sleeping are caused by structural, systemic and individual factors that necessitat­e a whole-of-society approach. This was yet another of the big statements in the document that initially motivated me to believe we were potentiall­y seeing a real change.

The City goes so far as admitting that staying at night shelters and safe spaces might not be as wonderful an option as it has led the public to believe. People staying there have to renegotiat­e their accommodat­ion nightly and are permitted on the premises only from 5.30pm until the morning, with a limit of 3 months.

The City also states, officially and publicly for the first time, that we are dealing with individual­s and a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to have a systemic impact.

The City admits to not having accurate data on how many people fall within the various categories of homeless people in Cape Town. With so many admissions that corroborat­e the criticisms being levelled against the City, I found it hard to believe it could possibly not be sincere in its motives.

Unfortunat­ely, the manner in which the document is structured, makes one feel the City is under pressure to silence its critics on its approach to dealing with homelessne­ss and is doing so in the strategy by saying all the right things, yet, in practise, intending to change little.

One doesn’t have to read much further than the statement that the City will employ a public health approach to overcoming rough sleeping and assisting rough sleepers. This involves addressing rough sleeping from a broader perspectiv­e that considers the social determinan­ts of health and focuses on prevention, interventi­on and collaborat­ion among stakeholde­rs to realise that the changes that will be made in the City’s management of homelessne­ss have less to do with the homeless and their well-being and a great deal to do with the City’s agenda.

This is a huge disappoint­ment because the City is saying all the right things in a concerted effort to deceive Capetonian­s in underhande­d ways.

This becomes more than obvious when it on the one hand, owns up to the many failures of the current approach in dealing with homelessne­ss, yet, on the other hand, absolves itself and the provincial government and squarely levels the blame at the National Department of Social Developmen­t.

Having read and scrutinise­d the strategy, I am unconvince­d that their implementa­tion of the so-called new strategy will see much of a change in the manner in which homelessne­ss is being addressed in Cape Town or in the number of people sleeping rough on the streets of Cape Town.

Suddenly the contradict­ions start and one has to wonder just what the City is up to.