The recent National Homeless Conversation in Cape Town strengthened relationships across the sector, providing an opportunity to build consensus on the way forward. Here Tara Gerardy-Bissolati, Social Development manager of the CCID, highlights key points.
The National Homeless Conversation Conference, held in Cape Town in November 2025, was a critical milestone for the homelessness sector in South Africa. At a national level, the event provided a rare and valuable platform for government departments, NGOs, lived-experience leaders, academics, frontline practitioners and funders to gather in one space to engage in honest reflection.
Because of the complexity of homelessness, no single organisation can resolve the issues alone. The conference therefore created a collective moment of alignment and an opportunity to compare models, share data, interrogate assumptions and build a multi-stakeholder consensus around what works.
KEY EVENT
The event carried deeper significance for Cape Town, which faces one of the most visible and entrenched homelessness realities in the country. It ensured the city remained at the forefront of collaboration and evidence-based practice.
Hosting the conference allowed Cape Town to demonstrate its leadership role, highlight its successes and failures, and invite learnings from other cities.
It also helped strengthen relationships between the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID), the City of Cape Town, shelters, outreach teams, health services and community groups.
Importantly, it fostered trust and transparency, laying the groundwork for more coordinated interventions in the Cape Town CBD and beyond.
HARM REDUCTION AS A STRATEGY
As head of CCID Social Development, I gave a presentation on harm reduction as an evidence-based, humane and effective strategy for reducing risk, building trust and creating pathways for long-term change. In my view, traditional, abstinence-only approaches continue to leave many clients behind because they require individuals to be “ready for recovery” before they receive support.
Harm reduction flips this logic. It meets people where they are at without judging them, and focuses on reducing immediate danger first. This includes safer-use education, access to clean equipment, overdose-prevention measures, trauma-informed communication and small achievable steps that restore dignity and personal agency.
The CCID’s message emphasised that harm reduction is not soft; it is strategic. It increases engagement, improves health outcomes, reduces public-space hazards, lowers long-term costs to the system, and builds stronger relationships that ultimately support recovery.
The goal was to show that a realistic, compassionate approach does more than save lives – it also improves safety and wellbeing in the CBD. By shifting the narrative toward evidence rather than emotion, the CCID aims to strengthen support for a city-wide harm-reduction framework that respects both the needs of clients and the expectations of the public.
CAPE TOWN: A VANGUARD CITY
Cape Town joined the global Vanguard Cities network at the event, becoming the 18th international city to do so. This was a landmark moment. The Institute for Global Homelessness (IGH) selects cities that demonstrate both readiness and commitment to measurable homelessness reduction.
The aim of the Vanguard partnership is simple yet ambitious: to reduce homelessness using a coordinated, data-driven, shared-accountability model that can be tracked over time. This requires accurate, real-time data; clear definitions; collaborative leadership; cross-sector alignment; and political will.
Is the goal realistic? Yes, but only with sustained commitment and honest data. The Vanguard model is not about eliminating homelessness overnight; it is about measurable reduction.
Cape Town has strong foundations, an active municipal strategy, an involved civic ecosystem, a culture of innovation, and established partnerships such as the collaboration between the CCID and The Haven Night Shelter. The challenge will be scaling coordination, improving data integration across services, and aligning all stakeholders around shared targets. If these elements remain priorities, the aim is not only realistic, but achievable.
WHAT THE CAPE TOWN CBD CAN LEARN
Global cities provide valuable insight into both effective and ineffective approaches. One clear lesson is that enforcement-only strategies do not sustainably reduce homelessness. Cities that rely heavily on displacement, policing or punitive approaches see people simply move from one area to another, often becoming more disconnected from services. In contrast, cities that combine outreach, housing pathways, harm reduction and data-driven planning achieve measurable reductions.
Cape Town can also learn from:
- Housing-first principles: Offering safe, low-barrier accommodation before requiring sobriety or programme participation often stabilises individuals enough to engage in long-term support.
- Coordinated entry systems: A shared database and unified assessment process prevents duplication and ensures that individuals receive the most appropriate support quickly.
- Lived-experience leadership: Many global cities actively employ people who have experienced homelessness in planning and evaluation roles. This improves relevance and trust.
- Public-communication strategies: Cities that regularly communicate honestly about homelessness, its causes, limits and progress build greater community support.
These lessons reinforce the need for a compassionate, aligned and data-driven model tailored to the realities of the CBD.
IMAGES: CCID
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