Every person counts. And everyone counted during the City of Tshwane’s first official homeless count, counts! This is a critical moral, political and theological assertion, and insistence. It is also a critical methodological reminder. Losing one survey form, or miscounting, or messing up data, is miscounting one person’s dignity, importance and information. Without such insistence..
Read moreChange-making in a (post)apartheid city: An auto-ethnographical essay
We reflect on living and doing ministry in a (post)apartheid South African city, negotiating ongoing demographic and sociopolitical transitions and discerning appropriate faith responses. We speak about the inevitability of these transitions, but then suggest that a view of theology and ministry as change-making is not inevitable but a vocation and art to be acknowledged,..
Read moreHomelessness and Covid-19 in the City
of Tshwane: Doing liberation theology
undercover – A conversation with
Ivan Petrella
Ivan Petrella argues that the goals of liberation theology can sometimes be better served by doing it undercover. This article reflects on responses to homelessness during Covid-19 in the City of Tshwane, describing and reflecting upon itfrom the perspective of a researcher-theologian as well as activist-urbanist. It employed two lenses in its reflection: Petrella’s notion..
Read more(Finding) Pathways out of homelessness: An engaged, trans-disciplinary collaborative in the City of Tshwane
Street homelessness in the City of Tshwane was brought to public attention in the winter of 2014. This led to a composite research project involving different constituencies, including homeless people, to reflect on ways of addressing street homelessness in the city. This article serves as a conceptual and epistemological introduction to this collaborative research project..
Read morePortrayal of Housing Issues of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Two South African Newspapers
Newspapers are important sources of information related to the issues of refugees and asylum seekers. Seeking asylum in South Africa is challenging because of a hostile sentiment towards non-citizens. The study focused on answering the following research question: How were housing and homelessness related to asylum seekers and refugees portrayed in two South African newspapers..
Read moreHomelessness IS a Housing Issue: Responding to Different Faces of Homelessness. A City of Tshwane Case Study
This article presents the case of one local housing organisation in the City of Tshwane and its mother organisation, responding to different faces of homelessness through creating diversified housing options. It asserts that the absence of such housing options would render people homeless, or extremely precarious. It insists that homelessness is also a housing issue, challenging a..
Read moreFostering Pathways Out of Homelessness: Choreographies of Change-Making in the City of Tshwane
Finding pathways out of street homelessness in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, brought together major academic and community-based institutions as well as local government. This article reflects on the collaborative processes used between 2014 and 2020 and analyses the efforts needed to succeed. It considers the challenges faced and demonstrates that a carefully choreographed..
Read moreDignity, justice and community as a baseline
for re-interpreting being church in a
Corona-defined world
This article is written as a reflection on the relevance of being church in a world defined by the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The reflections are done by listening to the stories and experiences of vulnerable men and women who were displaced from their areas of living onthe streets into (mostly) temporary shelters. Different organisations, state..
Read moreHomelessness and Community Based Healthcare: A Narrative Experience in a Temporary Shelter Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
ABSTRACT This article serves to describe health encounters and social dynamics of 52 homeless men residing in a temporary shelter in Tshwane during the COVID-19 hard lockdown period. The purpose of this article is to explore and modify factors that influence healthcare in homeless persons, as well as to establish a homeless health profile. It..
Read moreFostering 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..
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