Abstract
Although political factors affect the situation of care of the homeless worldwide (Schout et al., 2011), in South Africa there are unique factors of the post-apartheid government policies stressing the redress of inequality. These policies have given rise to expectations of care, especially amongst the black people as disadvantaged under apartheid, which have not been fulfilled (Ramphele, 2008; Jansen, 2009). In their extreme form, expectations amount to societal attitudes of entitlement, making it difficult for clients of welfare services to feel personally empowered. International reviews conclude not only that countries and cultures differ in the context and content of homelessness but also that the numbers of the homeless in general are rising and will continue to do so (Cross et al, 2010). No social or economic influence on limiting this population that represents the extreme end of poverty is envisaged. It seems then as if the homeless are here to stay. How we care for them thus deserves our urgent attention.
In this paper I shall present the services of a faith based organization for the homeless as the context of my own experiences as a weekly volunteer for the evening meal at a soup kitchen provided by the organization. I shall discuss the services and my experiences, including broader references to work with the homeless, under the moral attributes developed by Tronto (1993) in her political ethic of care, namely attention, responsibility, competence and responsivity. A number of questions arise when we confront the homeless and their care and I have presented these under the relevant headings.