The democratisation of space for people experiencing homelessness within the city bowl of Cape Town

Westcott, Kirsty

The democratisation of space for people experiencing homelessness within the city bowl of Cape Town

Thesis / Dissertation

2025

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Abstract

Homelessness is a complex and dynamic challenge for which there is no simple solution. Due to rapid population increases and urbanisation, cities are under large amounts of pressure to provide the necessary human rights that people need to survive. The gap between people who are homeless, and those who are in shelters, is increasing at an alarming rate, and has been exacerbated even more by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the non-profit organisation, Ndifuna Ukwazi, there are approximately 14 000 people who are homeless in Cape Town, with only around 2 500 shelter beds available for temporary shelter (Ndifuna Ukwazi, 2021). Moreover, many people experience homelessness for a wide variety of reasons, some of which are attributed to social aspects such as mental illness, social isolation, substance abuse, and many more, as well as economic aspects, whereby people come into the city bowl seeking economic opportunities but might not be able to afford housing, or transport costs are too high to commute in and out of the city bowl area everyday. It has of late, become imperative that a new and innovative thinking is needed to develop more ways to uphold the basic human rights of people experiencing homelessness. The recent City of Cape Town approval of the 'Unlawful Occupation' by-law prohibits people who are homeless from living within the 'public realm.' This puts immense pressure on the City to provide adequate shelter to the most marginalised as soon as possible. This research project lands itself within the city bowl of Cape Town and seeks to explore how, through short-and-longer-term urban design interventions, the city bowl can become more inclusive to give people who are homeless their right to the city. This research project argues that public assets, such as public spaces and strategically earmarked public-land, can be leveraged to provide adequate public amenities, good quality housing, as well as to provide greater support to people experiencing homelessness, making the city bowl more equitable and accessible to the most marginalised

Keywords

Homelessness

Cape Town

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Masters

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