Owners of government-subsidised homes who have sold or let these to other people may be blacklisted by the province.
Housing MEC Whitey Jacobs is awaiting responses to about 20 letters he hand-delivered to people who had sold or let their houses in Delft.
Lukhanyo Calata, spokesperson for Jacobs, said on Monday that letters had been handed to the owners of subsidised housing and the tenants.
He said tenants had been told to move out of the houses within a month, while the owners had been ordered to explain their actions to the department within 14 days.
Calata said the idea was to blacklist owners who abused what they had gained, while depriving someone else on the waiting list of a home.
If they sold their homes to move to better areas, this might be understandable, he said.
"But they go back to living in shacks that burn down in summer and flood in winter," said Calata.
He said poverty and unemployment should not be used as an excuse to abuse the fundamental right to better housing.
"The selling and unauthorised renting out of these government-subsidised houses is criminal and immoral, especially given the huge backlog of housing in the Western Cape," said ID secretary Rodney Lentit.
Lentit called on Jacobs to consider implementing a proposal by municipalities that would allow houses that were being let to be transferred to the tenant, if the tenant was on the housing list and qualified for a subsidy.
The provincial secretary of the South Africa National Civics Organisation (Sanco), Chris Stali, said the problem was widespread in the province.
He said Sanco had discussed the issue with communities, and it had emerged that they wanted those selling or letting their government-subsidised houses to be arrested and charged for making a profit out of state property.
While he is against blacklisting, Stali supports the idea of transferring the house to the tenant and taking the offending owner off the housing list.
He said the government should seek to tie together housing and employment creation policies and put more resources into the fight against the development of shacks.
- Cape Argus
Housing MEC Whitey Jacobs is awaiting responses to about 20 letters he hand-delivered to people who had sold or let their houses in Delft.
Lukhanyo Calata, spokesperson for Jacobs, said on Monday that letters had been handed to the owners of subsidised housing and the tenants.
He said tenants had been told to move out of the houses within a month, while the owners had been ordered to explain their actions to the department within 14 days.
Calata said the idea was to blacklist owners who abused what they had gained, while depriving someone else on the waiting list of a home.
If they sold their homes to move to better areas, this might be understandable, he said.
"But they go back to living in shacks that burn down in summer and flood in winter," said Calata.
He said poverty and unemployment should not be used as an excuse to abuse the fundamental right to better housing.
"The selling and unauthorised renting out of these government-subsidised houses is criminal and immoral, especially given the huge backlog of housing in the Western Cape," said ID secretary Rodney Lentit.
Lentit called on Jacobs to consider implementing a proposal by municipalities that would allow houses that were being let to be transferred to the tenant, if the tenant was on the housing list and qualified for a subsidy.
The provincial secretary of the South Africa National Civics Organisation (Sanco), Chris Stali, said the problem was widespread in the province.
He said Sanco had discussed the issue with communities, and it had emerged that they wanted those selling or letting their government-subsidised houses to be arrested and charged for making a profit out of state property.
While he is against blacklisting, Stali supports the idea of transferring the house to the tenant and taking the offending owner off the housing list.
He said the government should seek to tie together housing and employment creation policies and put more resources into the fight against the development of shacks.
- Cape Argus
No comments:
Post a Comment