The impact of homeless evictions at the Castle of Good Hope
At the time of their eviction, the removal of homeless people who occupied the land outside the Castle of Good Hope was hailed as a positive move.
The homeless people were evicted after resisting a mandate by the Western Cape High Court to relocate by October 17. They were ordered to vacate the precinct outside the Castle after the court ruled in favour of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI).
The eviction was completed under the direction of the Sheriff of the court, with the assistance of the SAPS and Cape Town metro police.
Castle of Good Hope CEO, Calvyn Gilfellan explained that the homeless community that ended up at the Castle was a direct result of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
“Likewise in numerous other sites around the city centre, many of them still there today. Although we understood the socio-economic conditions that led to their dire situation, it was simply unbearable to see fellow human beings living in unsafe and unhealthy conditions among rodents and other pests. So, it was a humanitarian crisis that needed to be resolved.”
Back in August, in the lead-up to the eviction, the City of Cape Town said that more than 150 squatters had taken up their offer of dignified transitional shelter at Safe Spaces.
A total of 127 responders chose to move willingly to the newly constructed Ebenezer Safe Space in Green Point, which has 300 beds, and another 26 have chosen to move to Culemborg Safe Space 2.
The majority of the clients that were relocated from The Castle of Good Hope have left Safe Space 2.
The city’s Safe Space model includes: dignified shelter, comfort and ablutions, two meals per day, access to a social worker on-site, personal development planning, various social services including IDs and social grant assistance, family reunification services, access to substance and alcohol abuse treatment, skills training, help finding a job, and access to Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) work placement.
According to Carlos Mesquita, a former homeless man and founder of Outsider, an organisation focused on enlightening people on homelessness and on accommodating those living on the streets in a dignified and sustainable manner, the homeless started leaving the next day after they.
“The shelters and safe spaces run their operations mostly based on the now very dated Provincial Department of Social Development White Paper on shelters. This defines a shelter as an emergency and short-term intervention for those who fall into homelessness.
“Unfortunately, they never developed a policy that tells the sector what happens after those three months are up. And so, despite 20-odd years later still not having anywhere to send people to after that initial period, these facilities still enforce either a three-month to six-month maximum stay,” Mesquita said.
“The court order for those at the Castle specifically prohibited that from being implemented for those being evicted from the Castle but then again, the city failed to keep any of its commitments that were made a condition of the court order being granted.”
Mesquita said that most of the people who were at the Castle are living on the station deck, and on the street between Central police station and the Magistrate’s Court building.
“They are packed there like sardines at night although they are being routinely harassed by CCID and law enforcement. A group of about 20 moved into Maitland near the station.”
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor Axolile Notywala said that while they have not been able to locate the evicted Castle of the Good Hope residents, “some never arrived at the designated shelter”.
“There have been reports by councillors within Subcouncil 16 that some of the homeless have moved to other homeless encampments in places such as Woodstock and Salt River.
“‘Safe spaces’ are nothing more than a band-aid solution to a systemic crisis. But also this speaks to the ill-treatment of the occupants in those spaces. On the streets, the homeless are not governed by others’ rules and regulations.”
Mesquita shared that part of the challenge is that the safe space operators and staff treat residents as if “they are lesser beings and adults are being treated as if they have no mental capacity”.
He adds that residents are afforded no agency over their own lives and futures.
“The City has no intention of addressing homelessness. They know well what they are doing wrong but it works in their favour to offer cosmetic solutions and then blame the homeless for not making use of these facilities.
“They know full well an uninformed public will stop having compassion and empathy to the point where they will support City interventions that are inhumane and illegal,” Mesquita said.
Xolile added that on top of the degrading conditions, the restrictions of these shelters are not geared towards supporting efforts to find or create work for themselves to get them off the streets.
“The majority of the City budget for ‘Safe Spaces’ is allocated to tenders (38%) and security (25%), and only 5% on upliftment and treatment programmes for the residents.
“The City is failing to include the homeless in their planning and decision making,” Xolile said.
“These ‘safe spaces’ were not the city’s idea, but the initiative of the homeless themselves following engagements with them in 2015. The management of these spaces was never intended to be handed over to security companies with no understanding of the real needs of the homeless. They were meant to be run by NGOs in partnership with the homeless, providing real, community-driven solutions to the crisis.”
The City of Cape Town has yet to respond to inquiries.
As for the Castle of Good Hope itself, Gilfellan said while the homeless community is now gone, criminality seems to be on the rise.
“It is thus a problem that all law-enforcement agencies operating there must now vigorously tackle before it degenerates into total anarchy and mayhem… Our biggest challenge remains the fact that the entire area around the castle is viewed as unsafe for our staff and visitors.
“Although events like Kuier@thecastle, Doek on Fleek, and the opening of new thought-provoking cultural exhibitions have created a momentum that carried into the festive season, we must not underestimate the medium-term impact of the relocation of the Castle homeless settlement on the image of the Castle and the city,” Gilfellan said.
“It is still early days but judging by the positive public feedback, we are on the rebound.”
theolin.tembo@inl.co.za