Street people in South Africa: Studies towards understanding the homeless
We have all seen homeless people – and usually hurried on by without stopping to ask how they came to be where they are. Very few of us would try ‘sleeping rough’ to see what it feels like, as several journalists have done. But many of the contributors to this special issue spent hours talking to homeless people in dark and dirty corners over a period of several months to gain insights into the plight of this most unfortunate, yet resourceful, section of our society. They heard stories like these:
I had nothing left, and I had to leave home to look for work. I don't want to go home – I imagine the suffering that I left back there – I needed to get a job before I could go back. I'm not worrying much now, I have no child or relatives left. I stay with my friend, or on this street corner.
It was the political violence – many of us scattered. I think that was 1995 – I couldn't go back. I have no relatives. I am staying on the street. When it is raining, it is bad, cold, I cover myself with plastic, and I just hide myself, even under a tree.
The project had its origins in 2004. At that time, the HSRC building in Pretoria had attracted a group of street people who sought shelter around the building every evening. But since there was no sanitation or other public amenities, the local health department identified this as a potential health hazard and recommended that the organisation should put up a fence. As it is a socially aware organisation, before erecting the fence the HSRC carried out a rapid appraisal of these people and worked with local organisations to set up a shelter nearby so they might have somewhere to go once the area was closed off. At the same time, we realised how little information there is about South African homelessness, and this prompted us to undertake a major multidisciplinary study of homelessness. This project involved most of the HSRC's research programmes. Our aim was to provide useful material to fuel the debate about policy for the homeless and to identify some ways and places to take action.
The first step was the qualitative research, shared across 12 projects in 2005–2006, funded by the HSRC parliamentary grant and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC). The second was a quantitative survey, during 2007–2008, using information from the qualitative work to select the sample and define the issues. Our research priorities were further refined by the concerns of our funding partners: the Gauteng Department of Social Development (DSD) needed information about street children, and about access to and delivery of services as it had identified problems of homelessness in the rural areas, and the SDC was interested in human rights issues.
The study asked the following questions: Who are the homeless in South Africa? Where will we find them, how do they move around, and what makes them decide where to live? How do they become homeless and what are their options for escaping homelessness? How do they support themselves? What are their aspirations? What services do they have access to and what services do they need? How are government and civil society responding?
The papers in this issue offer some answers. They cover the historical origins of homelessness; the way homelessness in other countries compares with South Africa's; who the homeless are, where they come from, what makes them leave home, and what role their families and personal histories play; the threats to their well-being and the lifestyle-related health risks they run; and the special needs of children on the street. The authors look at how national and local government and civil society have responded to the problem, and the efficacy of social grants. They consider the policy implications of the evidence this study has collected and make recommendations that could help to improve the lot of the homeless.
Government wants to know what will help the homeless on the streets and, ideally, help them leave the streets and take their place in housed society. Reports from other countries show how difficult it is to effect this kind of cure. In Sweden, known for its social awareness and human rights consciousness, non-governmental organisations claim that government rehabilitation aid for the homeless has virtually stopped, apparently for lack of success. If interventions on the streets are unlikely to succeed, the next thing to try is prevention: finding ways to head off that stage of social exclusion that causes people to adopt the streets as their home.
To do this we have to follow the many strands of homelessness from their origins to their endpoints. As ways to reduce or prevent homelessness, the papers in this issue identify housing and urban planning, access to informal livelihoods on the streets and social welfare programmes. The diverse perspectives presented here are the beginning of systematic efforts to understand and address the problem. Perhaps the most important question is whether street homelessness can be dealt with mainly by supplying enough affordable housing, or whether its complexities require a broader policy response. The editors hope that this special issue will stimulate others to join the debate and submit articles in response.
Acknowledgements
Many people made this study possible. The editors acknowledge their funders, the National DSD, the Gauteng DSD, the HSRC and the SDC, and commend them for wanting to develop an evidence base for assisting the homeless. Too often, those responsible for improving the lives of street people act without evidence or adequate understanding of the problem. The editors also warmly thank the street people and former street people, and the many service providers, non-governmental organisations and shelter staff, whose generous sharing of their time and their stories of their lives and work made this study possible. The editors are grateful to Mark Orkin and Mike de Klerk, respectively Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director at the time of the study, for recognising the importance of homelessness as a social science research question. The editors also thank Annemarie Booyens for formatting the questionnaire, Anneke Jordaan and Monica Peret for helping to analyse the data, the late Jennifer van Rensburg for conducting telephone interviews, and our fieldworkers for dedicated work under difficult conditions.