In the context of the Practical-Empirical Implementation Projects (SMUS Action 4 – Phase I), the team based at the Unit for Street Homelessness of the University of Pretoria, produced this research report summarizing the process and main outcomes. By building on and expanding the SMUS Toolkit, a combination of ethnographic research and visualization techniques, ten “hot spots”, public spaces with high concentration of homeless people, were analyzed. The report, as their authors point out, has been conceived as “as a gift to the City – practitioners, officials and politicians – as we collectively seek to find lasting, humane, dignified and just solutions for homelessness” (p.II)
Below you can find an excerpt from the report’s foreword:
Since Covid-19, so-called ‘hot spots’ where there are concentrations of homeless persons, have increased in the City of Tshwane, South Africa’s administrative capital. Not only have ‘hot spots’ increased, but it contributed to greater visibility of homelessness in the City, and are also distributed across the metropole’s seven regions, including areas where historically there were no incidents of homelessness.
Local authorities tend to treat increasing evidence of homelessness through actions and bye-laws that tend to criminalize people, often displacing social challenges from one area to another, without conclusively addressing root causes. Various responses seek, with differing results, to address homelessness in South Africa. Apart from overnight shelter, transitional housing, and access to supportive of social housing options, eThekwini and Cape Town also experimented with so-called safe spaces.
In this short-term research project, we aimed to identify hot spots in regions across the City of Tshwane, and then make recommendations for considering safe spaces in ten particular areas, which might have the potential to a) reduce vulnerability; b)improve social conditions; c) inform future policies and practices; and d) build a pipeline from streets to safe spaces / shelters to supportive / affordable housing.
Author: Centre for Faith & Community, website: https://www.centreforfaithandcommunity.co.za/
To read the full report, please visit this link: Research Report “From Hot Spots to safe spaces”