Housing the Poor The Mitchells Plain Housing Scheme

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WORDS Frederique Talbot

We all dream of owning our dream home. We plan, save and look forward to the day we can call a house our own. However, for most people who live in the Mitchells Plain area in Cape Town, four walls and a roof can remain a distant dream.

Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela from the Department of Human Settlements has implemented a housing scheme to help people like this, but they have to satisfy the following criteria:

– South African citizen or permanent resident
– First-time homeowner
– Household income of between R3,000-R3,500
– Married or single with dependants
– Never received a housing subsidy
– Must not have owned property
– Competent to contract
– Clean credit record
– Permanently employed
– R5,000 deposit

The scheme is the result of a partnership between the South African government, the City of Cape Town and Cape Town Community Housing Company.

Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela from the Department of Human Settlements has implemented a housing scheme to help many people in Mitchells Plain. Photo: Frederique Talbot

A special day for five families

On 19 September 2013, five Mitchells Plain families were handed keys to their new homes.

‘I’m very excited about this project,’ Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela confided on the day. ‘If you look at the quality of the houses there’s no difference to houses built by other people – the design fits in very well with the environment,’ he added with pride.

Now in its fourth phase, the project aims to build 850 houses and eventually roll out to other parts of South Africa. The vision is to integrate the new homes into existing communities in a way that allows for racial and economic integration.

For most people who live in the Mitchells Plain area in Cape Town, four walls and a roof can remain a distant dream.

The Minister of Human Settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela greets the first family who received the keys to their new home in Harmony Village, Mitchells Plain. Photo: Frederique Talbot

What about those who don’t meet the criteria?

While hundreds of Capetonians await the outcome of the new housing scheme with anticipation, there are those who simply do not meet the required criteria to even request a house.

‘We have a lot of projects for different categories of people,’ said the Minister of Human Settlements. ‘We have about 16 programmes in total,’ he added.

That being said, Cape Town Community Housing Company faces many challenges as the only organisation of its nature in the area and the lofty ideals of civil society cannot always be fulfilled by industry. With a population of approximately 398,650 people, Mitchells Plain is an area rife with unemployment and crime. We can only hope that the housing scheme is able to make a real difference in the community before trying to branch out to other areas.

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