History

The Pride Shelter Trust was launched in February 2006. At the time, there were many well funded health and social service organisations, but no crisis shelter type service particularly for LGBTI people. Thus, the Pride Shelter Trust was born to establish and manage a shelter offering short-term accommodation to LGBTI people during crisis periods.

 
The next three years were all about fundraising and in that time over R1 million was raised by the gay and lesbian community. In 2010, after a lengthy application process with the City of Cape Town Property Management Services, the Pride Shelter Trust signed a lease for a City-owned property at 1 Molteno Road in Oranjezicht. We then started the process of renovating the building.


On 5th April 2011, the Pride Shelter was opened. The furnishings were donated by the community including 22  beds, a television and furniture for the kitchen and residents' lounge. Since then, we have supported over 350 LGBTI individuals from the greater Cape Town area and beyond.