Finding a local home for the U-Turn Homeless Ministries, an organisation aiming to help Stellenbosch’s unhoused, has posed a challenge for the organisation until now.

Its application for a proper site in the Stellenbosch CBD to fulfil its central objective of providing the unhoused with skills and tools to get the off the streets was approved last August.

U-Turn will offers ablution facilities for clients to freshen up and support services including a work-readiness programme. “U-Turn undertook extensive preparations for using ERF 235,” explained Kenneth Bingham of U-Turn Ministries.

“This included conducting technical surveys and developing detailed architectural plans for the site. We were ready to move forward with the establishment of a service centre, which would have required additional fundraising to cover capital costs associated with the project.

“Fortunately, Stellenbosch Municipality had offered a Grant-in-Aid, which would have assisted in providing services, what we refer to as Phase 1 and Phase 2 services from the site. In addition, the Grant-in-Aid funding would have covered the provision of ablution facilities through a separate contractor.”

Hefty injection

During the most recent allocation of funds from the municipality’s grant-in-aid in May, U-Turn Ministries was once again the recipient of R40 000.

The municipality allocated R1,1 million to the organisation, a portion of the funds carried over from the 2024-’25 financial year when the plans were initially approved. U-Turn is set to receive an additional R1,2 million in the next financial year (2027-’28). However, with no suitable site for the services, U-Turn has not seen any of these funds.

Municipal spokesperson Stuart Grobbelaar confirmed no funds have been paid to U-Turn, as the grant-in-aid policy requires organisations to have a service delivery footprint within the municipal boundaries.

“The approval was therefore conditional upon U-Turn Ministries securing suitable premises within the municipal area from which to operate,” Grobbelaar explained. “The organisation remains eligible to apply for funding annually through the same process, ensuring that funding can be made available once an appropriate facility has been secured.”

Along with addressing basic needs the organisation will enrol homeless people in its skills-development programme, getting them off the street, employed and self-sufficient, said Stephen Underwood, communications and fundraising officer at U-Turn.

“We have an excellent track record in this, but the first step is providing basic needs in a conducive space where clients can go from a mentality of day-to-day survival to one of making long-term plans to come off the street.

Serving vulnerable people

“We also build trust at this stage because when clients arrive for the first time their trust levels are extremely low and we have to build that relationship where clients trust we will journey with them and they build up trust in themselves, and that they have the intrinsic value and potential to move beyond their current circumstances and struggles.”

A fully functioning homeless service centre serves between 600 to 800 unique individuals per year and 10 to 60 per day.

Merin Raju Jacob, chairperson of the Stellenbosch Homelessness Forum, said the number of locals who experience homelessness fluctuates depending on the season.

“We also have many people who experience vulnerability, people who have housing outside Stellenbosch but come to the CBD to earn money as day strollers, whom we also naturally include when considering people in precarious situations,” she explained.

Mobile services are valuable for the role played in helping the homeless, Jacob pointed out. Approval of bus parking is a step closer to lessening resistance to operating a U-Turn Ministry in Stellenbosch, a site for demonstrating the value of its solution for homeless individuals, in this way countering the spectre of an increase in street people in and around the CBD, according to Jacob.

Holistic approach

Although the forum has no official statics on the extent of unhoused locals, Statistics SA says the number increased from 13 135 in 1996 to 55 719 in 2022, with Gauteng recording the biggest share (46%), followed by Western Cape (18%).

Jacob said temporary solutions should never be seen as the end goal. Arriving at the right solutions requires the proper permanent infrastructure that offers certainty and the ability to think long term. “Homelessness is a long-term challenge that requires long-term thinking.”

The challenge calls for a holistic approach, Jacobs said. “We have many institutions in Stellenbosch doing wonderful work responding to the challenge, but not looking at the long-term path out of homelessness,” she said.

Bingham said U-Turn is committed to collaborations with other local stakeholders.

The municipality is currently helping U-Turn to find a suitable premises for its services, Grobbelaar added. “We hope to have this sorted soon.”