Fostering Integrated, Collaborative Approaches to End Street Homelessness: A COVID-19 Perspective

ABSTRACT

This article maps the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in the City of Tshwane through the lens of street homelessness. This is done through a “thick description” of what happened during this time. This map is then read against both the intention of the Tshwane Homelessness Policy and the said objectives of the Tshwane Homelessness Forum. The article will indicate ways in which collaborative approaches in the city are starting to bear fruit, whilst at the same time showing how persistent competition and isolation from each other works detrimentally for both those who are homeless and seeking support, as well as for those perpetuating isolationist action. It recommends specific areas in which integrated, collaborative action is required to break specific cycles of street homelessness in the city.

KEYWORDS:

• Homelessness
• shelters
• City of Tshwane
• collaboration
• global south
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 City of Tshwane (CoT) refers to the geographical location, and the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) refers to the metropolitan municipality. The City of Tshwane is the administrative capital city of South Africa, housing the Union Buildings

2 The Tshwane Homelessness Forum is discussed later in the paper in the section “The role of the Tshwane Homelessness Forum: historically and now”.

3 No. 2 Struben Street Shelter is the only city-owned, long-term shelter in CTMM (Tshwane). There has been a lack of management for a number of years, which resulted in extreme overcrowding, dilapidation of the building and property, illegal activities, lack of sanitation and general health deterioration of the residents.

4 “An Integrated Development Plan is a super plan for an area that gives an overall framework for development. It aims to co-ordinate the work of local and other spheres of government in a coherent plan to improve the quality of life for all the people living in an area. It considers the existing conditions and problems and resources available for development. It looks at economic and social develop for the area as a whole. It is used by municipalities as a tool to plan short- and long-term future development” (City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, 2020)

5 “The Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH) launched the A Place to Call Home initiative in 2017 with key global strategic partners to begin pioneering work in 13 vanguard cities across 6 continents. Each city has made a commitment to significantly reduce or end street homelessness in reflection of their local context” (Institute of Global Homelessness, n.d.). The CoT was chosen as one of the 13 vanguard cities.

6 “Building on the successes of countries and cities across the world, the Institute of Global Homelessness, (IGH) has partnered with key global strategic partners to launch A Place to Call Home, a global effort to support 150 cities to end street homelessness by 2030. The foundation for this effort is the pioneering work of a small group of cities working toward goals related to ending street homelessness by 2020. Their work will show what is possible, clearing the path for 25 more cities working to end street homelessness by 2025, then a final 120 cities to end street homelessness by 2030” (Institute of Global Homelessness, n.d.).

7 COSUP “is the first publicly funded, community-based programmatic response to the use of illegal substances in South Africa. It is founded on a systems thinking, public health and clinical care harm reduction approach” (Scheibe et al., 2020).

8 Direct observation treatment or DOT has been used to ensure the adherence to the treatment of tuberculosis (Friedena & Sbarbaro, 2007). In Tshwane, the same strategy is used with chronic, long-term medicine including OST for homeless people to ensure adherence with extreme success.