New policies proposed to tackle Johannesburg social housing backlog

With a social housing backlog of 300,000 units in Johannesburg, the city is proposing new ways to facilitate quicker delivery of state-sponsored homes.

“The ever growing housing need and increased demand for a permanent solution has resulted in a strong need to identify a diversified way to speed up delivery,” said MMC for Housing, Meshack van Wyk.

The draft housing allocation policy is in the public participation stage and will be tabled in council within the coming months.

Among its key policies is how the department proposes to allocate beneficiaries to RDP houses, and how it proposes to implement the roll-out of serviced sites to people to build their own homes.

The allocations policy proposes that the city move from ward-based allocations to a first come first served basis. It means residents could be allocated a house anywhere within the city and not based on where they reside.