New City Programme to Uplift Street People

The ideal of re-integrating street people into their communities is often not realised because they lack a support system and the opportunities and incentives to create a new life for themselves says Councillor Grant Pascoe, the City of Cape Town's Mayoral Committee Member for Social Development and Special Projects.

"Within a month we will employ specialised service providers in the areas where most of the street people originate," Pascoe said. "Their brief and mandate is to reintegrate street people with their families and communities and support them on a case-by-case basis after re-integration. This marks the start of a systematic approach towards assisting some of the most vulnerable people in our society in a more pro-active manner."

"Without adequate support, street people inevitably succumb to the difficult realities of their new lives after re-integration and often end up back on the streets. Our aim is to create the opportunities people need to leave the streets permanently," Pascoe said.

The key to achieving this, says Pascoe, is to ensure that they have back-up after they return to their communities of origin and the new service providers are expected to:

• create a safety net for street people after they are returned to their communities
• support, monitor and assess them individually in terms of physical and mental health
• provide rehabilitation and detoxification programmes where required
• individually assess their skills to enhance their chances of getting work
• provide training that will help them to get work
• provide care services for youth at risk in communities of origin
• assist and train their parents to enable them to cope with the challenges of children who are vulnerable to the lure of a life on the streets

"The selected service providers will be required to furnish evidence of progress made. The evidence will be independently monitored to ensure that the programme helps the people it was meant to and that the City gets value for money," Pascoe said.

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Issued by:
Communication Department
City of Cape Town