Local metropolitan government responses to homelessness in South Africa

Figures & data

Table 1: Context of responses

	Johannesburg	eThekwini	Cape Town	Tshwane
Department responsible for homelessness	Social Development (Social Services)/Housing	Housing	Social Development (Programme for Street People)	Social Development/Housing
View of reason for homelessness	Social dependency	Lack of low-cost housing/social dependency	Social dependency/lack of low-cost housing (indirect reference to moral failure)	Social dependency/lack of low-cost housing (indirect reference to moral failure)
Estimated number of homeless persons (including adults and children)	Between 4000 and 6000 (according to some interviewees the figure has dropped to about 1200)	No information available	4133 (3351 adults and 782 children)	More than 2000 (or about 1400 in the inner city)
Estimated number of shelters (including public and privately owned)	Between 12 and 15 (most are privately owned)	About five (in and around the inner city)	32 (15 adult and 17 child shelters – all privately owned)	35 (most are privately owned)
Current approaches to homelessness	Coordinating civil society responses/transitional housing	Street children programmes/relocation/enforcing minimum standard requirements in shelters	Coordinating civil society responses/awareness campaigns/promoting social justice/community participation/strengthening existing public and private sector services	Coordinating civil society responses/skills development/social and economic upliftment
Current metro police responses to homelessness	Responding to complaints/enforcing bylaws/displacing	Responding to complaints/enforcing bylaws/displacing	Responding to complaints/monitoring	Responding to complaints/monitoring/displacing

Table 2: Preparedness to respond

The municipality has …	Johannesburg	eThekwini	Cape Town	Tshwane
Preparedness in terms of planning/knowledge/research
… an employee specialised in homelessness	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
… adopted a homelessness policy	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
… implemented a homelessness strategy	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
… conducted research on homelessness	No	No	Yes	Yes
… an annual report on homelessness	Yes	No	Yes	No
Number of interventions used	4 out of a possible 5	3 out of a possible 5	5 out of 5	2 out of a possible 5
Total number of interventions used in category	14 out of a possible 20 (70%)
Preparedness in terms of resources/funding
… participated in intergovernmental working groups	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
… applied for provincial or national funding	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
… a consolidated budget for homelessness	No response	No	Yes	No
… municipal tax for homelessness programmes	Yes	No	No	No
Number of interventions used	3 out of a possible 4	1 out of a possible 4	3 out of a possible 4	1 out of a possible 4
Total number of interventions used in category	8 out of a possible 16 (50%)
Preparedness in terms of implementation/community coordination/PPPs
… cooperated with voluntary organisations to provide services	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
… partnerships for housing programmes	Yes	No	No	No
… encouraged private sector involvement	No response	Yes (but limited)	Yes	Yes
… contracted private sector programmes	No response	No	Yes	No
… community-based planning	No	No response	Yes	Yes
… coordinated metropolitan and non-metropolitan services	No	Yes (but limited)	Yes	Yes
… partnerships for job training	Yes	No	Yes	No (but forthcoming)
… partnerships for health programmes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
… provided public awareness campaigns	Yes	No	Yes	No (but forthcoming)
Number of interventions used	5 out of a possible 9	2 out of a possible 9	8 out of a possible 9	5 out of a possible 9
Total number of interventions used in category	20 out of a possible 36 (56%)
Preparedness in terms of programmes
… prevention programmes	Yes	No response	Yes	No
… emergency assistance	Yes	Yes	No	No response
… primary health care	Yes	Yes	No	No
… primary job and housing programmes	No	Yes	No	No
… long-term care programmes	No	No	No	No
Number of interventions used	3 out of a possible 5	3 out of a possible 5	1 out of a possible 5	None
Total number of interventions used in category	7 out of a possible 20 (35%)
Total number of interventions used by municipality	15 out of a total of 23 (65%)	9 out of a total of 23 (39%)	17 out of a total of 23 (74%)	8 out of a total of 23 (35%)
Total number of interventions used across all municipalities	49 out of a total of 92 (53%)
Source: The four groups of interventions, planning/knowledge/research, resources/funding, implementation/community coordination/PPPs, and programmes were adapted from Berman and West (1997).

Table 3: Rating of factors influencing responses

	Johannesburg	eThekwini	Cape Town	Tshwane
Higher governments
National	Important	Don't know/not applicable	No response	Very important
Provincial	Very important	Don't know/not applicable	Very important	Very important
Local government
Director of community development/housing	Very important	Somewhat important	No response	Very important
Mayor	Very important	Somewhat important	Very important	Very important
City manager	Don't know/not applicable	Somewhat important	Very important	Very important
Private initiatives
Religious organisations	Important	Important	Important	Very important
Community organisations	Very important	Somewhat important	Important	Very important
Private citizens	Very important	Don't know/not applicable	Important	Very important
Local business groups	Very important	Don't know/not applicable	Important	Very important
Economic circumstances
Poverty and low income	Very important	Very important	Somewhat important	Very important
Lack of affordable housing	Very important	Very important	Somewhat important	Important
Low level of minimum wage	Important	Very important	Somewhat important	Very important
Rise in unemployment	Very important	Very important	Somewhat important	Very important
Policy and administration
Lack of rehabilitative services	Important	Important	Very important	Very important
Changes in mental health policy	Important	Don't know/not applicable	Very important	Somewhat important
Cuts in national assistance programmes	Very important	Important	Very important	Important
Overload of criminal justice system	Very important	Important	Very important	Somewhat important
Community circumstances
Increased use of emergency shelters	Very important	Don't know/not applicable	Very important	Very important
Overload of community organisations	Very important	Don't know/not applicable	Important	Very important
Increased domestic violence	Very important	Important	Important	Somewhat important
Increased number of personal crises	Very important	Important	Important	Very important
Increased begging	Important	Important	Important	Important
Source: The six groups of factors, higher governments, local government, private initiatives, economic circumstances, policy and administration, and community circumstances were adapted from Berman and West (1997).

Table 4: Responses to the question ‘What is the most important thing the municipality can do for you?’

	Johannesburg		Tshwane		Total
	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
Provide employment	84	55.3	164	52.9	248	53.7
Provide housing	56	36.8	101	32.6	157	34.0
Provide support	8	5.3	26	8.4	34	7.3
Other	4	2.6	19	6.1	23	5.0
Total	152	100.0	310	100.0	462	100.0
‘Provide support’ includes emergency assistance, primary healthcare, skills training, pension or grants.

Table 5: Responses to the question ‘What kind of housing would you prefer and where should it be located?’

Preferred housing type	Preferred location
	Near town, factories, markets, or other homeless shelters		In a local suburb		In a local township		Total
	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
Place in a homeless shelter	25	47.2	0	0.0	2	2.5	27	18.2
Affordable rental housing	10	18.9	3	21.4	15	18.5	28	18.9
Affordable self-owned housing	18	34.0	11	78.6	64	79.0	93	62.8
Total	53	100.0	14	100.0	81	100.0	148	100.0

Figure 1: Shelter locations around Cape Town inner city

Figure 2: Shelter locations around Durban inner city

Figure 3: Shelter locations around Johannesburg inner city

Figure 4: Shelter locations around Pretoria inner city

Berman , E M and West , J P . 1997 . Municipal responses to homelessness: A national survey of ‘preparedness’ . Journal of Urban Affairs , 19 ( 3 ) : 303 – 18 .

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