Cape Town - There were 5 654 homeless adults and children were recorded by the Social Development Department in the country as at January 2022.
At total of 5420 were recorded at night shelters and a further 1 559 were recorded as living on the streets.
This was revealed by Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu in her response to parliamentary questions from DA MP Alexandra Abrahams.
According to Zulu, there were no homeless adults recorded in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape, but the Western Cape recorded 2 308, Gauteng 1 949, KwaZulu-Natal 602, Free State 199, Eastern Cape 161 and North West eight.
The only provinces that recorded homeless children were Gauteng with 98, North West 51, Free State 44, Western Cape 41.
However, the breakdown of homeless people living on the streets shows that Western Cape has 764, North West 721 and Free State 74.
Meanwhile, Zulu said the national Department of Social Development has a dedicated budget under the programme for families to develop national policy for the homeless as it had a responsibility to provide a policy framework.
She said, however, that it should be noted that homelessness was a cross-cutting issue that involved different government departments and each department had a responsibility to provide a budget according to its mandate.
“It is also critical to note that each sphere of government also plays an important role in addressing homelessness,” she said in response to separate questions from Abrahams who asked why Zulu had not dedicated a specific budget to address homelessness and wanted a breakdown of R10.5 million for the families sub-programme in the 2022-23 financial year.
On Monday, Cape Times reported that the Social Development Department was in the process of finalising a study on homelessness because there was no national policy on the matter.
She was quoted as saying that the issue of homelessness required a collaborative effort to address.
Zulu was quoted as saying it was not clear which department was mandated to take a lead in the matter, but her department took an initiative to lead the development of the policy for the homeless.
“To this end the department is in a process of finalising the rapid assessment and a diagnostic study on homeless which will be used as a basis for the development of the policy.
“The aim of the study is to understand the nature and extent of the problem, what interventions are available and the existing policy gaps.”
Zulu noted that Gauteng and Western Cape had dedicated shelters and a budget to address homelessness as well as guidelines, norms and standards for the operation of the shelters.
She also said other provinces did not have dedicated shelters and a budget, but had repurposed existing structures to address the issues of homeless people.
“Provinces are working closely with other key stakeholders such as Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, South African Local Government Association, SAPS, Home Affairs, Human Settlement and Health in order to provide comprehensive integrated services to the homeless,” Zulu added.
Cape Times