‘Homeless but not rights-less’: Call for a humane response to a growing SA crisis

Last week the sixth National Conversation on Homelessness took place in Johannesburg, drawing in representatives from eight towns and cities from across South Africa, including Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Tshwane.

The 170 participants included more than 50 people with lived experience of homelessness, as well as government officials, NGOs, pastors, academics and concerned citizens.

The newly elected national committee of the National Homeless Network. Back row from left: Ms Heather Zikhali (incoming National Secretary); Professor Stephan de Beer —Tshwane; Mr Chris Lund — Chair Johannesburg Homelessness Network (JHN); Dr Temba Middelmann —JHN (Research); Mr Jon Hopkins — Cape Town and U-Turn; Mrs Caroline Holley — Pietermaritzburg and LifeChangers; Ds De la Harpe le Roux — Bloemfontein and Towers of Hope. Front row from left: Mr Nkosi Zulu — Pietermaritzburg and LifeChangers; Ms Mary Gillett-de Klerk — outgoing National Secretary and from the JHN; Mr Raymond Perrier — Durban/eThekwini and the Denis Hurley Centre; Mr Ndodana Hadebe — Cape Town's Homeless Action Committee; Ms Ruth Birtwhistle — Durban/eThekwini and the Denis Hurley Centre. Not in photo: Mr Johan Robyn and Ms Tebogo Sehlwane — Tshwane and the Tshwane Leadership Foundation; Mr Mandla Nkosi —JHN. (Photo: Mark Heywood)

During the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns there appeared to be a greater awareness of homelessness. But this often coincided with homeless people suffering attacks and unlawful evictions — such as the infamous shelter set up at Strandfontein by the City of Cape Town — and arbitrary and unlawful evictions in inner-city areas like the Alberts Farm Conservancy in Johannesburg.

By contrast, according to the National Homeless Network (NHN): “The way in which some municipalities had made efforts to keep homeless people safe and to help some reunite with their families was appreciated. Covid-19 showed how much could be achieved in those places where government, business, local residents and NGOs worked together with homeless people to identify and respond to tangible problems.”

However, while the threat of Covid-19 has receded, the crisis of homelessness has continued to rise. Because homelessness is often caused by lack of income and access to work, Covid-19 and the subsequent economic downturn has resulted in almost every metro area seeing a visible increase in the number of homeless people, perhaps by as much as 30%, says the NHN.

For example, the Gauteng government estimates that in Gauteng the largest homeless population is in the Johannesburg and Tshwane metros with more than 25,000 homeless people. In this respect, presentations made to the conference by City of Johannesburg and Gauteng provincial officials were welcomed.

According to a report on the conference, Councillor Ronald Harris, the acting MMC for Health and Social Development of the City of Johannesburg, told the conference that “while many NPOs and NGOs are doing really good work in supporting homeless people, red tape is preventing key government departments from assisting, for example with securing land or buildings for homeless service providers.”

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Perhaps with recent unlawful evictions at Alberts Farm Conservancy in mind, Harris made a request “for the JMPD and police nationwide to uphold the rule of law and rather to focus on being humane when dealing with homeless people.”

Mbali Hlophe, the Gauteng MEC for Social Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, said under the newly minted Premier Panyaza Lesufi, her department had adopted four focus areas including food security, environmental sustainability, substance abuse and homelessness. She says the aim of the Gauteng Provincial government is “to promote an inclusive economy and a true developmental state” and “to break down a culture of dependency by giving hand-ups rather than hand-outs through skills development.”

Hlophe stated that the Gauteng Province had declared war on homelessness and noted that it had developed the first provincial “City Region” policy on street adult homelessness (2021-2024), as well as Guidelines for Homeless Service Delivery, which should start addressing the growing problem in a coordinated manner.

In response the NHN “lauded” the Gauteng provincial government for achieving the first provincial policy and guidelines which, they say has “resulted in R87-million being set aside to start to address homelessness across the province”.

Read: Gauteng social development set aside over R87 million for homeless people | Citypress

However, after hearing experiences of managing homelessness from activists and service providers around the country, the NHN says “it is aware of huge inconsistencies in the response to homelessness, between different municipalities and different provinces. This is to be regretted, but it also provides a clear indication of what is possible and what standards could be set for every tier of Government.”

As a result the NHN has called upon:

• “Every municipality facing a problem with homelessness to develop a municipal policy.


• Every metro to create a task team that brings together local NGOs and government departments.


• Every province to develop a provincial policy, ‘following the positive lead of Gauteng’.


• National government “to follow through on the promise from the Office of the President to develop a national policy.”

The NHN says “these policies should follow the best practice by looking at homelessness as a multi-factor problem and draw in all relevant departments; be developed in close collaboration with experts in the sector (NGOs, faith-based organisations and academics) and with homeless people themselves; be humane “recognising that homeless people enjoy the same rights as all other people”; and be “transversal and developmental and aligned across the tiers of government and local by-laws and policing practices adapted in line with policies.”

In its post-conference statement, the NHN ends by warning that “a punitive approach to homelessness is both costly and futile and urges all municipalities to adopt a localised, sustainable approach that embraces the concept of an inclusionary neighbourhood.” DM/MC

The NHN comprises individuals, more than 20 NGOs and organisations working to address the challenges of homelessness. For more information and comment, contact: 

National: Prof Stephan de Beer, [email protected] 082 413 2475
Cape Town: Ndodana Hadebe, [email protected] 067 284 7848
Bloemfontein: De la Harpe le Roux, [email protected] 083 232 1051
Durban: Raymond Perrier, [email protected] 076 570 2497
Johannesburg: Mary Gillett-de Klerk, [email protected] 082 395 1268
Pietermaritzburg: Caroline Holley, [email protected] 082 825 7874
Tshwane: Johan Robyn, [email protected] 072 120 6251