Exploring the housing experiences of single mothers who are heading households in Kathrada Park, West of Johannesburg

Abstract: Despite its effort to close the housing gap, South Africa’s low-income individuals and communities continue to contend with the dilapidated housing, most of which lack basic infrastructure and services. The centrality of adequate housing to individuals and families cannot be over emphasised. The post-1994 housing landscape still features discrimination and exclusion of female single parents. Thus, the female-headed households (FHHs) are left behind in development due to the systematic exclusion of poor single-mothers who are heading households. Women and men experience the lack of housing differently because of the numerous roles that women assume such as collecting firewood, cooking and childbearing. Hence this qualitative study focused on exploring the housing experiences of female headed households from the perspective of female single parents who are heading these households. Using purposive snowball sampling methods, the study drew its eight participants from a low-income community, South West of Johannesburg. Semi structured interviews were used to gain in-depth understanding of the housing experiences of these single mothers. Interviewing and interaction between the researcher and the participants were influenced by the social development pillar of democracy and participation. The study found that while some participants expressed lack of safety, privacy and compromised dignity, others indicated that they had actually lost hope of getting better housing from the government. The latter utilised their yards to plant vegetables in order to augment their meagre income. The researcher recommends that housing especially for FHHs needs to be seen as more than just brick and mortar, butalso acknowledge their needs of food, shelter, economic opportunities and advanced services.M.A. (Community Development