Monday, July 16, 2012

Cape Town target: 4 000 homes in a year

The City of Cape Town hopes to build 4,000 homes for Cape Town families over the next year.

There are more than 300,000 families on the city’s waiting list – some of them have been on the list for more than 30 years.

And another 10 housing projects are set to start this year, which will eventually provide housing for more than 6,000 families.

Ernest Sonnenberg, the city’s mayoral committee member for human settlements, outlined some of the biggest projects.

Sonnenberg visited one of the sites, Rondevlei, near Lavender Hill, this month. Construction is set to start soon and will provide two-bedroom homes for 145 families.

The families were living in the Cuba Heights informal settlement on the same site. One of the beneficiaries applied for a home in 1979.

In this project residents had a hand in appointing the contractor and in the design of the homes.

It is being funded by the city and the provincial Department of Human Settlements.

It’s also unique in that 40 of the beneficiaries will be employed to help with the construction.

Sonnenberg said other areas where houses will be completed this year include Philippi East, Scottsdene and Atlantis, and Happy Valley near Blackheath.

In Philippi East 405 houses will be completed this year. In Happy Valley 350 homes will be built.

Apart from the actual homes, Sonnenberg explained that 6,000 sites would also start receiving basic services.

This referred to “site and service” and not the actual top structures.

The rental upgrades will also continue. And this year, just more than 900 units will be renovated at the hostel in Langa.

Upgrades to 145 homes in Hangberg will also begin this year, while upgrades to about 7,000 council-owned properties are targeted for this year.

At the beginning of 2010 the city’s Human Settlements Department started the Community Residential Unit programme, a national government initiative.

The city intends to spend more than R1 billion over the next few years to repair council-owned homes. There are about 40,000.

Other housing projects that will begin this year:

* In Delft, a housing project building more than 2,000 homes will start in the next two weeks.

* More than 100 homes will be built on Edward Street in Grassy Park.

* A project in Heideveld will eventually deliver more than 700 homes.

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