housing

A Geneva-based housing rights group, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), has urged Nigerian authorities to provide ‘adequate emergency shelter’ for thousands of people displaced by deadly violence in the central city of Jos.

"Those displaced as a result of the recent violence... must be provided with adequate emergency shelter while efforts begin to provide a permanent solution to their housing problems," says COHRE.

Human Settlements Minister, Tokyo Sexwale, is working closely with Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, to rectify mistakes made in the N2 Gateway Housing (N2GP) Project.
Sexwale told the Parliament’s portfolio committee on human settlements that, "Helen and I are working very close on this one."

He says that, "We said with the N2 let's bring everyone together. Let's check how the money is spent. Let's make sure no money is sent back. Let's bring the city close to [the] project."

Gauteng local government and housing MEC, Kgaugelo Lekgoro, has warned people to stop manipulating the housing process by taking illegal occupation of Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) homes.

In a press statement, the MEC says that, “Residents will never jump the housing queue process by embarking on acts of illegally occupying RDP houses in the province.”

“We cannot tolerate a situation where people just break the law with impunity,” warns Lekgoro.

Human rights groups have joined calls to stop building of the Northern bypass in Kenya's Capital Nairobi pending the resettlement of people living on government land.

The 13 groups, led by Amnesty International, say the eviction of more than 3 000 Githogoro slum dwellers near the upmarket Runda estate should be put on hold pending the resolution of a case filed by Kituo Cha Sheria.

The groups say the government is acting contrary to international conventions and the right to decent housing by ordering the residents to move.

The Gauteng housing department has admitted that its goal of eradicating shacks by 2014 is becoming impossible to reach.

The department’s Manching Monana says that for this goal to be achieved they will have to build 200 000 houses a year.

The department provided about 64 000 houses in 2008, exceeding its target of 58 000 and plans to deliver 28 000 units this year. However, Monana warned that this may be cut to 12 000 due to budget constraints.

This brief report has been prepared by Susan Carey with the support of Planact and Rooftops Canada. It draws on the experiences of a group of South African NGOs involved in housing policy reform in order to inform future advocacy and policy processes. Valuable lessons are drawn out for NGOs, government and other stakeholders. We firmly believe that policy outcomes, program design and implementation benefit from transparency and sharing of information and experiences.

File: 

PHP Advocacy--lessons for NGOs.pdf

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has called on businesses to get involved in government's efforts to address the backlog of 2.1 million houses.

Sexwale promised to talk to the financial sector to create new forms of finance and access to finance for the unbanked.

Sexwale further said that his department wants to move from what he calls "RDP things" and provide homes, not just houses. He was making reference to small government-provided houses.