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 ‘hotspots’ 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. We are grateful to Prof Jacques du Toit, who identified this opportunity for our Unit for Street Homelessness to collaborate with the Global Centre for Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS), in doing this research.

The patience, support and critique of SMUS, and partners in other cities, and the financial support of DAAD, with back-funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ), enabled the successful implementation and completion of this project. Apart from Prof Du Toit, it is important to also acknowledge Dr Michelle Janse Van Rensburg, Remembrance Mokwena-Ngulele, Sam Moimane, Nombulelo Ndandani, and the team of field workers associated with the project, who all contributed in ways that enable implementation of this project. Lourens Snyman and his team in the Department of Geography/GIS proved invaluable in supporting the mapping process that accompanied our research. We offer this research report as a gift to the City – practitioners, officials and politicians – as we collectively seek to find lasting, humane, dignified and just solutions for homelessness. We strongly recommend consideration for piloting a number of safe spaces, with a view of assessing impact, refining the model, and replicating it if proven effective and viable.