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In 1977 Father Roger Hickley and Mr Sam Gross met with concerned residents of Green Point and Sea Point who wished to address the problem of vagrancy in the area. A decision was made that something constructive had to be done and the first official committee meeting was held in March 1978. Father Hickley then approached the Catholic Church and gained permission to open the doors of the old Sacred Heart Convent in Somerset Road to vagrants.
ON September 15 1978 the HAVEN NIGHT SHELTER was officially opened at these premises which until July 2001 housed the head office of The Haven Night Shelter.
The first Haven could house approximately 70 people and a social worker was employed to interview and make every effort to re-establish contact with the vagrant’s family. The aim of the Haven was to act as a conduit from the streets back into the community and we originally opened under the auspices of SHAWCO as we did not have a fundraising number at that time.
Although the Haven was succeeding in its aims and many people had been reunited with their families, it was not popular with many of the residents in the area. Traditionally, this was a ‘Coloured’ area but had been proclaimed a ‘White’ area in 1965. The residents developed a sustained attack on the presence of the Haven and in 1982 the then Department of Community Development ordered the Haven to close.
The Haven Management Committee, which comprised representatives of local churches and synagogues, decided to fight this order and the Government finally conceded that if the problem of vagrancy was to be addressed, a shelter would need to operate in this area. It was decided that a less prominent and less residential site should be sought. This led to the establishment of the Napier Street Shelter as the first of a growing number of shelters for the homeless in Cape Town.
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