The people evicted from Delft are the last in a long line of communities to fall victim to the confused and untransparent process by which houses are allocated. Many of those evicted claimed to have been on the "housing list" of the council for many years.
Tension is now rising because they claim people who have been on the "list" for a shorter time have received housing, and they have not. This mythical "housing list" is at the centre of many beliefs and opinions, strongest of which is that if you are on the list you will get a house, and you will get that house in the order in which you, and others, appear on the "list."
This is a convenient fairytale, and very far from the truth. As an NGO involved in getting information for people about housing, the Open Democracy Advice Centre says that there is no "housing list", as people understand the term. So what actually happens around the allocation of housing in Cape Town?
We understand the process as follows. First, you can register for a house through the municipality. If you meet the criteria, you will be put on a database of people who want housing. If there is a project, like the Delft one, you then get moved from the database to the list of individuals who will receive houses. This is done by the allocations committee, headed by the City of Cape Town.
Also represented on that committee are national government, and provincial government. Thubelisha Homes is the project manager and they get the list of individuals who are going to be given houses.
If you are registered in this way, you are generally not consulted during the process.
You can also form a group of people who qualify for homes, as part of the People's Housing Process. You then go to Thubelisha, and ask that they develop a particular area. They will then liaise with local government, and the province, and screen the applicants.
So, let us assume there is money for 250 houses in a particular area. If your People's Housing Process committee goes to Thubelisha, and negotiates with them, and Thubelisha has land available that is appropriate for housing, they will then put the 250 people who qualify on this "list" of that project. That is when you are on the list. Then you really can expect a house. That budget will then be exhausted, and only replenished in a new financial year.
If you are merely registered, it does not mean you are on the list. You only make the transition to a list for a particular project once you have been chosen by the allocation committee. They choose in terms of criteria, like 80 percent for a project from Joe Slovo and 20 percent from the backyards. Then you are on the "list". These criteria are not generally published.
The process is complicated by the role of councillors. They should be ensuring fair delivery from officials. In some cases, however, they take on the official's role, in that they say who must get on the list, and who not. They even suggest to people that they move to informal settlements, to get priority on a real list.
The complaint that there are people who have been in the Cape for less time than others, and get houses sooner, is therefore quite genuine.
This story is not unique to the Western Cape. In eThekwini people will show you their "receipt" for their registration on the database for a house. They will tell you firmly that they are going to get a house. This receipt also does not mean that they qualify for a particular project. It can't, because different projects have different qualification criteria. It just means you are on the database. How long you have been on the database is not a criterion for getting a house.
We have seen real housing lists. They take an enormous amount of effort to get out of your average municipality. They have names, ID numbers and erf numbers on them. They relate to specific projects. Being on the database is not the equivalent of being on a list.
As housing delivery has advanced, the question of how to ensure fairness between individuals, especially in cities, has become more pressing. The history of the "list" in a city like Cape Town goes back well before the advent of democracy. The tale of the list has become almost oral tradition in some communities, and we have not seen a concerted effort to explain to these communities how housing is in fact dealt with.
It is also very difficult to say whether the housing allocation policy is fair in practice. This is not because we know that it is unfair, but because it is not transparent. It does seem reasonable to observe that priority in the allocation of housing has been given to those who are organised, and who complain effectively about their lack of housing, and who demand information about the process of delivering housing to them.
This should be the way forward for communities, who should be demanding information about where they stand in the process. These demands should be responded to quickly. People's frustrations should not be allowed to reach the point that they feel that they can only make their voices heard by breaking the law, putting themselves and their families at risk.
Tilley is CEO of the Open Democracy Advice Centre and Pietersen is its housing information fieldworker.
- Cape Times
Tension is now rising because they claim people who have been on the "list" for a shorter time have received housing, and they have not. This mythical "housing list" is at the centre of many beliefs and opinions, strongest of which is that if you are on the list you will get a house, and you will get that house in the order in which you, and others, appear on the "list."This is a convenient fairytale, and very far from the truth. As an NGO involved in getting information for people about housing, the Open Democracy Advice Centre says that there is no "housing list", as people understand the term. So what actually happens around the allocation of housing in Cape Town?
We understand the process as follows. First, you can register for a house through the municipality. If you meet the criteria, you will be put on a database of people who want housing. If there is a project, like the Delft one, you then get moved from the database to the list of individuals who will receive houses. This is done by the allocations committee, headed by the City of Cape Town.
Also represented on that committee are national government, and provincial government. Thubelisha Homes is the project manager and they get the list of individuals who are going to be given houses.If you are registered in this way, you are generally not consulted during the process.
You can also form a group of people who qualify for homes, as part of the People's Housing Process. You then go to Thubelisha, and ask that they develop a particular area. They will then liaise with local government, and the province, and screen the applicants.
So, let us assume there is money for 250 houses in a particular area. If your People's Housing Process committee goes to Thubelisha, and negotiates with them, and Thubelisha has land available that is appropriate for housing, they will then put the 250 people who qualify on this "list" of that project. That is when you are on the list. Then you really can expect a house. That budget will then be exhausted, and only replenished in a new financial year.
If you are merely registered, it does not mean you are on the list. You only make the transition to a list for a particular project once you have been chosen by the allocation committee. They choose in terms of criteria, like 80 percent for a project from Joe Slovo and 20 percent from the backyards. Then you are on the "list". These criteria are not generally published.
The process is complicated by the role of councillors. They should be ensuring fair delivery from officials. In some cases, however, they take on the official's role, in that they say who must get on the list, and who not. They even suggest to people that they move to informal settlements, to get priority on a real list.
The complaint that there are people who have been in the Cape for less time than others, and get houses sooner, is therefore quite genuine.
The lack of transparency around who is chosen and why, is a cause of a great deal of the conflict on this issue. This conflict plays into racial tensions and xenophobia.
This story is not unique to the Western Cape. In eThekwini people will show you their "receipt" for their registration on the database for a house. They will tell you firmly that they are going to get a house. This receipt also does not mean that they qualify for a particular project. It can't, because different projects have different qualification criteria. It just means you are on the database. How long you have been on the database is not a criterion for getting a house.
We have seen real housing lists. They take an enormous amount of effort to get out of your average municipality. They have names, ID numbers and erf numbers on them. They relate to specific projects. Being on the database is not the equivalent of being on a list.
As housing delivery has advanced, the question of how to ensure fairness between individuals, especially in cities, has become more pressing. The history of the "list" in a city like Cape Town goes back well before the advent of democracy. The tale of the list has become almost oral tradition in some communities, and we have not seen a concerted effort to explain to these communities how housing is in fact dealt with.
It is also very difficult to say whether the housing allocation policy is fair in practice. This is not because we know that it is unfair, but because it is not transparent. It does seem reasonable to observe that priority in the allocation of housing has been given to those who are organised, and who complain effectively about their lack of housing, and who demand information about the process of delivering housing to them.
This should be the way forward for communities, who should be demanding information about where they stand in the process. These demands should be responded to quickly. People's frustrations should not be allowed to reach the point that they feel that they can only make their voices heard by breaking the law, putting themselves and their families at risk.
Tilley is CEO of the Open Democracy Advice Centre and Pietersen is its housing information fieldworker.
- Cape Times
No comments:
Post a Comment