CHAPTER 7: SOCIAL HOUSING AND THE CREATION OF SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOODS SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOODS
7.4 Social housing in South Africa
7.4.4 Challenges facing the social housing sector in South Africa
It has been noted in the section above that, when compared to Europe, social housing is relatively post Apartheid and underdeveloped in South Africa. The achievement of social housing so far reveals that it presents mixed results (Tonkin, 2006). Highlighting some positive outcomes of the social housing sector, the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) (2005) which is one of social housing institutions, believes that it has achieved two main goals. Firstly, it succeeded in supplying quality affordable housing to low-to middle income groups. Secondly, it created sustainable communities in the inner city of Johannesburg. Besides, JHC (2005) claimed that it added 8% to the residential stock of inner city of Johannesburg. However, JHC is aware that given the high demand for rental housing in general and particularly social housing in the inner city, more social housing units are needed to satisfy such growing demand. It can be noted that social housing in South Africa must address the issue of severe rental stock shortage.
7.4.4.1 Addressing the issue of social housing shortage
The main challenge facing South African social housing sector is to increase -its delivery so that low and middle income groups who have chosen the rental option may be adequately served. This is a central issue which summarises other challenges and shows that to date, the demand for social housing units is higher than the supply for social housing units in South Africa. According to the department of housing, the objective was to provide 50 000 social housing units of all types within five years to
meet the rental housing need of low and middle income groups (DoH, 2004). This may be possible with the financial capacity and the improvement of partnership between public and private sectors. The challenge of increasing social housing units bears at the same time others challenges such as to increase finance and to address capacity building within social housing institutions. Besides, as the housing development is a function of availability of land, issues of affordability and availability of urban land should be addressed.
7.4.4.2 Addressing the financial capacity issue
Without addressing the financial issue in allocating substantial subsidies for social housing in South Africa, this mode of housing delivery is unlikely to fully achieve its goals of providing quality affordable housing to low-to middle income groups. It will sacrifice the rental housing need of low-income and will only benefit middle and high income households. Although the department of housing (2004) advocates that the target of social housing are people who are monthly earning between R1500 and R7500, Tonkin (2006) argues that only people earning a minimum of R2400 can afford the rent in the social housing sector. In fact, in its start, social housing in South Africa was not designed for low-income households. It intended to serve middle income groups defined in South Africa as households earning a monthly income between R3500 and R7500. The shift intervened in 2004 when the definition of social housing inserted and highlighted low-income households as its target (DoH, 2004). The challenge to be addressed is to mobilise enough funds for social housing institutions not only to manage and monitor the social housing sector but also to make social housing sector accessible for low-income people.
The mode of tenure option adopted by social housing requires residents to have a regular and permanent income that may help them to honour their rental obligation (Fish, 2003). With the high rate of poverty and unemployment in South Africa, one may argue that without significant subsidies to accommodate poor households, social housing in South Africa will exclude this segment of population. The question that arises about poor households who cannot afford to inhabit in social housing units is to know what will happen to them if they do not benefit from the public housing programme either. They will probably end in informal settlement which is, according to Huchzermeyer and Karam (2006) a perpetual challenge in South Africa.
Alongside the challenge of increasing finance for the efficiency and effectiveness of the social housing sector, the issue of a lack of capacity to manage and monitor the social housing sector should be addressed.
7.4.4.3 Addressing the issue of a lack of capacity in the social housing sector
The increase of a social housing stock presumes that there are competences to manage and monitor the social housing sector. South Africa suffers from a lack of skills (Baumann, 2003). The report of SHF shows that the capacity within government and housing institutions is limited to manage and monitor the social housing sector (SHF, 2005). It can be noted that the lack of skills is one of the biggest challenges to be addressed not only in the social housing sector but in all sectors. Improving the capacity in social housing sector can have the advantage of introducing innovations in the sector and to improve the management in the social housing sector. Besides, the social housing sector cannot fully achieve its defined goals if the issue of limited capacity is not addressed. In fact, in its study related to three social housing projects in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Tonkon (2006) observes that residents were not aware of environmental sustainability such as saving energy or water through energy efficiency or water recycling.
The introduction of post Apartheid technologies in the social housing sector which may have environmental and economic advantages for residents, and the running of the management of energy efficiency programmes require skilled people to direct the project. It can be argued that the lack or the limited capacity in social housing in South Africa prevents it in playing a role of promoting sustainable policies. The final challenge to be analysed in this chapter is the availability and the affordability of urban land for social housing development.
7.4.3.4 Addressing the issue of available and affordable urban land for social housing development
The issue of land in general and urban land in particular is one of the burning issues in South Africa. Urban land is fundamental to the success of the social housing development. The Department of Housing (2004) attributes the poor quality and location of low-cost housing which has been developing in urban peripheries to difficult access to well-located urban land at affordable prices. The supply of social housing cannot be improved within addressing the urban land issue which characterises the housing sector in South Africa. The private sector turned away from affordable housing,
delivered for low-income households, because of difficult access to adequate and affordable land (BASA, 2005). Apart from the difficult access, the urban land market is dysfunctional in South Africa and does not profit poor households who sometimes rely on land invasion to fulfil their housing need (Huchzermeyer, 2003).
The dysfunctionality of the land market in South Africa which is perceived in the existence of two land markets, namely the formal and the informal land market, slows down the delivery of social housing. According to analysts such as Carey et al (2003), the existence of two land markets in South Africa is the result of bureaucratic and complex procedures observed in the current formal land system. Among the solutions to address land issue in South Africa, Royston and Narsoo (2006) suggested including informal land market in the global strategy relating to land issues. The history of developing countries, including South Africa, is characterised by slavery, colonialism and Apartheid. It can be argued that during these past periods the distribution of land has not been conducted on the basis of justice and fairness. This means that land reform should be included among the solutions for addressing the urban land issue in South Africa.
Although the complications surrounding the urban land issue which remains a fundamental prerequisite for the smooth supply of social housing units, social housing remains the ideal regarding the rational utilisation of land. Compared to public housing, namely called RDP housing which uses horizontal expansion and therefore a huge space of land, social housing presents a sustainable solution related to urban land. In fact, social housing uses vertical expansion and does not need a huge space of land for its development. With its vertical development, social housing accommodates a lot of households in using a reasonable space of land. In this sense, social housing, which uses a high density development, responds to the issue of urbanisation in allowing its residents, mostly urban low-income households to compete for resources within urban centres (Mc Carthy, 2006).
Three main challenges, namely, the access to finance, the building of capacity and the access to urban land have been analysed in relation to the severe shortage which characterises the supply of the social housing sector in South Africa. From the demand side, poverty and unemployment have been seen as the main obstacles inhibiting the smooth functioning of social housing. In fact, poverty and unemployment impact negatively on low-income residents of social housing to honour their rental obligations.
The following and last session of this chapter will draw on the social housing experience in Europe to enhance social housing sector in South Africa.