The city of Johannesburg will in coming months
table drafts on three new housing policies to guide processes in allocating
reconstruction and development programme (RDP) houses, giving people serviced
sites to build their own homes and providing temporary emergency accommodation
to those in need, it said on Wednesday.
In a statement, member of the mayoral committee for
housing Meshack Van Wyk said
the council had held one of its final drives on Tuesday to bring the draft
policies to residents.
“Residents came in their numbers to give input
into these draft policies, which we expect to table in council within the
coming months,” he said, adding that better solutions like the
council’s inner city rejuvenation programme were needed in light of a housing
backlog of 300 000 units in Johannesburg.
The ever growing housing need and
increased demand for a permanent solution had resulted in a strong need to
identify a diversified way to speed up delivery, Van Wyk said.
“To this effect, the allocations
policy proposes that city move from ward based allocations to a first come
first served basis. For applicants, this will finally deliver housing to people
who have been waiting for over two decades. It also means residents can be
allocated a house anywhere within the city and not based on where they
currently reside,” he said.
The draft policies aim to ensure greater transparency during the allocation process, denying criminals the opportunity of queue jumping, fraud and corruption. http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/johannesburg-council-plans-to-table-new-draft-housing-policies-2019-10-09
